I mentioned a few weeks ago that Barack Obama, the soon-to-be senator from Illinois, is accepting invitations to appear with other Dem candidates across the country, since he no longer has to worry about campaigning at home.
Yesterday, however, the Washington Post had an interesting addition: Obama is also spreading the wealth.
In the past week, Obama has mailed checks totaling $260,000 to Senate candidates in 13 states, including $53,000 to the do-or-die campaign of Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.). He donated $100,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and $150,000 to party organizations in key states, including Florida, Wisconsin and Colorado.
Carrying his verbal assault on President Bush beyond state lines, Obama will fly to Los Angeles this week for a Democratic fundraiser and address rallies in Colorado and Nevada for John F. Kerry. In a close presidential race where turnout could prove decisive, Obama said in an interview that he is talking with Kerry advisers about where he can be most effective in the campaign’s final days.
Obama raised over $14 million for his Senate campaign, which as it turns out, is more than necessary. Given the circumstances, he’s in a position to start offering financial resources to other candidates who need the money more than he does.
This, however, isn’t just a candidate who’s proving to be generous; he’s a candidate who’s earning chits for the future.
It’s clearly premature to start speculating about Obama’s long-term plans; he hasn’t even won his Senate race yet. But if he does harbor broader ambitions, he’s developing relationships and delivering favors to a lot of people who will be indebted to him in the future.
As Noam Scheiber noted yesterday:
Given that donating money to fellow Democrats and Democratic organizations and campaigning for (future) colleagues are two of the most important factors in positioning yourself as a national candidate (since the grateful recipients tend to reciprocate later on), and given that it normally takes years to build the kind of stature and fundraising network that would allow you to do that, I think it’s safe to say that Obama’s already quick rise to the top of the national Democratic scene is being rapidly accelerated.
Exactly. Throughout the halls of Congress, political figures work for years to dole out the kind of favors that Obama is delivering on now. He’ll be the strongest freshman senator anyone’s ever seen.