I like Obama. But I wish he would hold some event for people who can't contribute the legal maximum for campaign contributions.

Obama has Healy's endorsement???? Thatt seals it. Now I'm definitely not voting for him.

Soooo...how does this election thingy work? Who gets most cash wins? Very American. Guess policies mean squat atm.

Obama coming to Jersey City

As part of a campaign swing through the Garden State, Democratic Presidential candidate and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is scheduled to be in Jersey City on Monday for a fund-raiser at the Liberty House Restaurant.

Mayor Jerramiah Healy and Newark Mayor Cory Booker are among the 100 or so expected to attend the noon to 1:30 p.m. luncheon ? the entrance fee for which is $2,300 per person, organizers said.

Healy and Booker are expected to endorse Obama at an event in Newark before the Liberty House event, sources said. ?Obama brings a refreshing element to the political fabric,? said Terry Dehere, a former NBA star who was recently elected to the Jersey City school board and who is one of 14 people listed as New Jersey supporters of Obama on the luncheon invitation. ?Other than voting for myself, this is the first time I am really comfortable with my political choice.?

According to the Web site politicsnj.com, the other people listed on the Jersey City invitation are: Ed Albowicz, Joe Caufield, Frank Cretella, Jersey City Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis, Victor Herlinsky, Paul Josephson, former City Councilman E. Junior Maldonado, Vice Chairwoman of the LibertyHealth System Board of Trustees Rosemary McFadden, Ken McPherson, Pamela Miller, Mike Murphy and Steve Valiotis.

Obama is also scheduled to make fundraising stops in Montclair and Princeton, as well as appear at a labor union town hall meeting in Trenton.

A Qunnipiac University poll taken from April 10 to 16 gave New York Sen. Hillary Clinton a 38 percent to 16 percent lead over Obama.

Ken Thorbourne

Obama visits Jersey for hearts and wallets

By - Carl Barbati
(May 8, 2007)

Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., will be touring New Jersey next Monday, May 14, trying to cut into Sen. Hillary Clinton's, D-N.Y., leads in both polls and fund-raising in the Garden State.

For Margaret Brown, of Trenton, it will be a chance to see the man that she wants so desperately to lead the nation.

"He is our hope for the future," said Brown, a well-known civic activist around the capital city.

"I had plans for Monday, but I threw them out the window when I heard about him coming here."

Trenton will be one of four scheduled stops for the Illinois senator, who trailed Clinton, 38-16, in the most recent Quinnipiac Poll in New Jersey.

Obama will make a 3:30 p.m. appearance at the War Memorial Building on Monday as a guest of the AFL-CIO, which is sponsoring "town meetings" for its union members, featuring different candidates in different cities.

"We're certainly happy to see presidential candidates come to our city and address our issues," said Kent Ashworth, spokesman for Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer, who has not yet endorsed anyone.

Obama visited Trenton last year as an undeclared candidate, holding a rally at the same War Memorial location.

And, as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Palmer will greet Obama at least one more time in the coming months when he hosts that group's annual summer meeting, when Obama and several other presidential candidates from both parties are expected.

In addition to the photogenic event with union members in Trenton, Obama will attend three private fund-raisers in Jersey City, Montclair and Princeton.

As of a March 31 campaign finance report, Obama had raised nearly $400,000 in New Jersey, while Clinton had raised more than $800,000.

"I've been a supporter of Obama from the time he gave that speech at the Democratic convention," said Michael Beaton, a West Windsor resident who will attend the candidate's fund-raising event in Princeton.

"I haven't believed in a politician in this way in a long time, but I really believe that he's in this for all the right reasons and not just for himself."

Obama made news in the South Jersey media yesterday when he endorsed U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah for mayor of Philadelphia.

Five candidates are competing in next Tuesday's Democratic mayoral primary, with the winner all but assured of election in November in the 80 percent Democratic city.

Fattah had been ahead in the polls, but slipped recently as millionaire businessman/candidate Tom Knox has blanketed the airwaves with commercials.

In an online letter urging Democrats to support Fattah, Obama referred to the challenges presented by a free-spending candidate like Knox.

"In my campaign for the U.S. Senate, I faced a wealthy opponent who financed his own election," Obama said. "By organizing a first-rate field operation and getting our supporters to the polls, we turned that conventional wisdom on its head."

Meanwhile, at New Jersey's opposite border, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer announced today that he will formally endorse Clinton for president at an event next week.

Carl Barbati can be reached at cbarbati@njpols.com.