President Barack Obama is coming home next month to fundraise for Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, after the Illinois state treasurer brought in significantly less money than his Republican opponent in the race for Obama’s old Senate seat, the Giannoulias camp
CHICAGO (AP) — President Barack Obama is coming home next month to fundraise for Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, after the Illinois state treasurer brought in significantly less money than his Republican opponent in the race for Obama’s old Senate seat, the Giannoulias campaign said Sunday.
The president is scheduled to be in Chicago for an Aug. 5 fundraiser, campaign spokesman Matt McGrath said.
News of an Obama visit comes after Giannoulias announced last week that he had raised $900,000 in the quarter that ended in June, compared to the $2.3 million hauled in by Republican Mark Kirk, a congressman from Chicago’s northern suburbs.
It will be an embarrassing defeat for Democrats if they lose in November the seat Obama relinquished after he was elected president in 2008.
"We’re excited to welcome President Obama back to Illinois to campaign with Alexi in early August," Giannoulias campaign manager Mike Rendina said in a statement. "The president’s visit will reinforce the importance of the clear choice Illinois voters face between Alexi, who supports helping the president move America forward, and career Congressman Mark Kirk, who wants to go back to the same failed Bush policies that got us into this mess."
It will be the latest help Giannoulias has gotten from the White House after visits from Vice President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the former Chicago Public Schools CEO, although none of it has helped Giannoulias keep pace with Kirk’s fundraising.
Giannoulias also got support from Obama in April when the president visited Quincy as part of his "White House to Main Street" tour and called him a "soon to be senator." Giannoulias had been invited to Obama’s rally event along with other Illinois officials.
Giannoulias is looking to give his fundraising a boost after weathering the controversy that followed the failure of his family’s Chicago bank. Regulators shut down Broadway Bank in April after it failed to raise new capital.
Giannoulias was an executive at the bank before he was elected to state office in 2006 and Kirk has used the failure to question whether Giannoulias is fit to be a senator.
But Kirk had his own problems during the April to June fundraising period when he acknowledged he had embellished his military record. A Naval Reserve officer, Kirk’s exaggerations included claiming a prestigious award he didn’t get.
Still, Kirk’s prodigious fundraising has left him with about four times as much money in the bank as Giannoulias. At the end of June, Kirk had almost $4 million cash on hand compared to $1 million for Giannoulias.
In the first three months of the year, Giannoulias raised $1.2 million, compared to the $2.2 million brought in by Kirk during that quarter.
Giannoulias has said fundraising is tough in a bad economy and it has been made more difficult by his pledge not to take money from corporate PACS and federal lobbyists.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
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