WASHINGTON - They are not wealthy. Their home states are politically symbolic. Their occupations or their circumstances suggest salt of the earth.
Four contributors to Barack Obama's presidential campaign, chosen from among thousands of donors, will sit down for dinner with the Illinois senator next month at a Washington, D.C., restaurant.
The two men and two women were announced as winners of a small donor solicitation campaign that was as much about raising money as it was about building a vast network of supporters from across the country who supplied biographical data and gave reasons for their support.
There's Michael Griffith, a miner from Nevada; Margaret Thomas-Jordan, a Louisiana mother of two whose husband is serving a 15-month tour in Iraq; Haile Rivera, a community activist and mentor from the Bronx in New York; and Jennifer Lasko, a Florida firefighter and paramedic who was a registered Republican until 2000.
Obama aides won't say how much money the solicitation raised and would only say that "thousands" responded to it. The campaign will pay the transportation and dinner costs for the four supporters. The selection was not a drawing or a lottery, which could have created problems with some states' gaming laws. Instead, the campaign culled through the entries looking for diverse backgrounds and personal stories. Finalists were interviewed over the weekend and winners were notified on Sunday.
"The goal was to pull together a group of people who might otherwise not sit down and have dinner together," said campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki. Lasko, an Army officer until shortly before the first Persian Gulf War, said she has opposed the war in Iraq from the start. "He has the best chance of overcoming the negativity of the political atmosphere in our country right now," she said of Obama.
A service of the Associated Press(AP)