Obama to Iowa in February

Illinois Senator Barak Obama intends to formally announce he’s running for president on February 10 at an event in Springfield, Illinois, and sources indicate he’ll be in Iowa later that day.  No word yet on where he will be.  Obama has already visited Indianola (for the Harkin steak fry last fall), the Quad Cities (for a pre-election event with Bruce Braley) and Iowa City (for that huge last-Sunday-before-the-election rally in the downtown ped mall).   

Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack’s campaign issued a statement yesterday as Obama-rama erupted in Washington:

STATEMENT ON OBAMA ANNOUNCEMENT
DES MOINES, IA — Below is a statement by Vilsack for President campaign manager Craig Varoga regarding Senator Barack Obama’s candidacy for President:

“We welcome Barack Obama and all the other candidates into the race. Voters across our country are going to hear a real debate about how to put the Bush years behind us and get America moving in the right direction. We’re glad that other candidates are joining the race. We look forward to a real debate about the issues as the other candidates begin to speak out.”

Obama’s senate press secretary called the Radio Iowa newsroom last week to tout Obama’s co-sponsorship with Senator Tom Harkin of a pro-ethanol bill.  The gentleman said his call was made upon the advice of Steve Hildebrand.  Hildebrand ran Al Gore’s general election effort in Iowa back in 2000.  Hildebrand, who works out of South Dakota, was on Tom Daschle’s team but then signed on with Obama before the November election.  It was Hildebrand who handed me an Obama in 2008 campaign button as I stood on the press riser to cover that Obama rally in Iowa City in November. 

Last week, Obama’s senate press secretary offered me a recorded sound bite of Obama talked about the merits of ethanol.  We do not accept such prepared material in our newsroom, but I did offer to take a phone call from Senator Obama to chat on the record about the subject, but Obama’s staffer said that was not possible.