Democrat vying for Illinois Senate seat gets a boost from Obama

Obama flew here to raise cash for state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, who faces a tough fight for the seat with Representative Mark Kirk, a Republican. It’s been a slugfest, and polls put the race neck-and-neck.

“All my friends in the house!’’ Obama shouted to cheers at the Drake Hotel at the first of two events expected to net more than $750,000 for Giannoulias and other Democratic Senate campaigns.

“I hope you’re fired up in these last few weeks,’’ he said. “It’s up to you to defy the conventional wisdom once again.’’

Recalling the warm November night in Grant Park when he appeared before a roaring throng as America’s first black president, Obama said that event “just gave us the chance to make change happen. That was the start, not the finish of the journey.’’

“Two years later,’’ he said, “the success of that mission is at stake.’’

Republicans, scenting a big symbolic triumph in Obama’s backyard, have been pouring money into Illinois, running campaign ads portraying Giannoulias as a likely rubber stamp for Obama. Giannoulias has responded by saying Kirk has taken huge contributions from special interests, and has routinely done their bidding.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — National Republicans are pulling a West Virginia Senate ad after Democrats revealed a casting call for actors who looked like hicks to play state voters.

“We are going for a ‘Hicky’ Blue Collar look,’’ said the pitch to potential actors. “These characters are from West Virginia so think coal miner/trucker looks.’’

The ad, filmed in Philadelphia, was dropped from the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s YouTube channel yesterday.

Republicans expect it to also be withdrawn from TV, where it has been in heavy rotation since Tuesday, according to a party official not directly involved in handling the ad who requested anonymity.

The ad showed men in flannel shirts and baseball caps worrying that Governor Joe Manchin, a Democrat, would side with President Obama if elected to the Senate.

It’s a theme the GOP has been hammering in the battle to replace the late US Senator Robert C. Byrd, a Democrat, though Manchin’s opponent, businessman John Raese, denounced the ad.

“The ad is ridiculous and I am happy to say that no one with the Raese campaign had anything to do with it,’’ Raese spokesman Kevin McLaughlin said.

The casting call listed clothing options including trucker or John Deere-style hats that are “not brand new, preferably beat up,’’ as well as jeans, down-filled vests, and “Dickie’s type jacket with T-shirt underneath.’’

The Republican committee blamed the wording on Philadelphia-based Kathy Wickline Casting, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“No one at the NRSC, or associated with the NRSC, had anything to do with the language used in this casting call,’’ Senatorial Committee spokesman Brian Walsh said.

The casting call was first reported by the website Politico. The NRSC has spent $3.5 million on the ad and others in the closely fought race, which the GOP believes it has a shot at winning.

Manchin and Democrats called the ad an insult.

“Not only have they been spending millions to try and buy this election with lies and distortions, we can now see once and for all what [Raese] and his friends really think of West Virginia and our people,’’ Manchin said in a statement.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

In the annual rankings released Wednesday, Forbes says Obama has been a “true change-maker’’ since coming to the White House. The business publication cited her high approval ratings, her status as a role model, and her campaign against childhood obesity.

Forbes said it decided to “look up and out into the broader culture’’ to compile the list of women from the arenas of politics, business, media, and lifestyle.

Obama displaced Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who had held the top spot for the last four years.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Representative Zoe Lofgren, the House Ethics Committee chairwoman, unilaterally announced the mid- to late-November proceedings for Charles Rangel of New York and Maxine Waters of California.

The trials will seek to determine whether Rangel and Waters violated standards of conduct. Rangel is a senior member and former chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, while Waters has a senior position on the Financial Services Committee.

The trials, officially called adjudicatory hearings, will begin Nov. 15 for Rangel and Nov. 29 for Waters. Rangel is accused of financial and fund-raising improprieties and Waters is charged with improperly helping Boston-based OneUnited Bank, where her husband has an investment.

ASSOCIATED PRESS