Obama to appear on island in July
BY MARLI GUZZETTA INDEPENDENT WRITER
Democratic candidate for president and junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama is tentatively scheduled to make a Nantucket campaign stop on Friday, July 20.

Obama is expected to keynote two events - a larger, daytime event and then a private evening event at an island home.

Democratic activist, fund-raiser, Citi Group executive and island summer resident Lou Sussman is hosting the appearances. Sussman worked as John Kerry's national finance chair during the 2004 presidential campaign.

As of press time, the Obama campaign had yet to finalized the number of seats to be made available at either event, prices and venues.

Mimi Beman, owner of Mitchell's Book Corner, and part-time resident Doug Rediker are assisting in the events' planning.

"I'm happy to help Obama, because he inspires people in ways they hadn't expected," Beman said.

Born in Honolulu, Obama was raised by his mother after his parents divorced. His father, who attended Harvard, died when Obama was 21 years old. After college, Obama moved to Chicago to work as a community organizer. He attended Harvard Law School and worked as an associate at Miner, Barnhill & Galland from 1993 to 1996 before being elected to the Illinois State Senate from 1997 to 2004. In 2004, he won an open U.S. Senate seat, with 70 percent of the vote. Released last October, his book "The Audacity of Hope" - named after the 2004 Democratic National Convention address that catapulted him to national notoriety - remains on The New York Times Bestseller List. He announced his candidacy for president in February of this year.

In April, the Obama campaign revealed that it had raised $25 million for the first quarter; only $1 million less than the Clinton campaign and $4 million more than Republican candidate Mitt Romney, fund-raising front-runner among his GOP peers.

Obama, who has thus far refused to accept donations to his presidential campaign from registered lobbyists and political action committees, received donations from more than 100,000 donors, more than any other candidate. (Clinton reported 50,000; McCain 45,000, Edwards 40,000 and Romney 32,000.) More than 90 percent of Obama's first quarter donations were $100 or less.

Organizers said that logistical information on the Obama events

will be announced "very soon." I