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Durbin: Obama victory in Iowa 'historic'

Posted January 04, 2008 10:00 pm

Adriana Colindres

A day after Democrat Barack Obama won his party's Iowa caucuses in kicking off the 2008 race for president, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin praised his colleague for a "historic victory."

He added that he expects Obama to do well in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary.

"This is the heavyweight division," Durbin, a Democrat from Springfield, said Friday at a news conference on the Old Capitol Plaza.

Durbin said Obama, Illinois' junior senator, emerged as the victor in the Iowa caucuses against "a very capable field of Democratic candidates," including Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Christopher Dodd, Joe Biden, Bill Richardson and Dennis Kucinich. Obama's first-place showing is indicative of his viability as a presidential candidate, Durbin said.

"After last night, this is for real. It's game time," said Durbin, who more than a year ago helped persuade the 46-year-old Chicagoan to run for president. Obama made the announcement last February at the same site as Friday's news conference.

A number of Illinoisans, including Durbin's wife, Loretta, spent time in Iowa before the caucuses to drum up support for Obama.

"It's true that we had the 'Barack brigade' coming across the river to help," said Durbin, who attended one of the caucuses. "But I'll just guarantee after what happened (Thursday) night, that in New Hampshire and every other state, you're going to find this outpouring of volunteer support that's going to make a big difference."

Durbin said he plans to head to New Hampshire on Sunday to assist the Obama campaign.

"There's no doubt that Senator Clinton will be strong in that state," Durbin said. "But we believe the difference in New Hampshire will be the independent voters who make up their mind at the end, whether it's to participate and which party to join. And we think that they're going to be attracted to the candidacy of Barack Obama."

Negative campaign advertising against Obama could backfire, Durbin warned.

"Historically, these independent voters are turned off by negative advertising," he said. "So if anyone in any other camp feels that they want to go after Barack as the front-runner, they run a real risk of turning off these independent voters in the four or five days before the election."

On a different subject, Durbin said he has spoken recently with Gov. Rod Blagojevich, legislative leaders in the General Assembly and rank-and-file lawmakers, urging them to reach agreement on a capital bill for building roads, schools and other infrastructure projects.

Their inability to pass a capital bill has prevented the state from taking full advantage of federal matching dollars that the Illinois congressional delegation negotiated. Asked Friday how much Illinois has lost, Durbin said it was "millions, for sure."

"We've lost a year. We can't stand to lose another one," he added.

Durbin wrote to top state officials about the matter in May.

Adriana Colindres can be reached at (217) 782-6292 or adriana.colindres@sj-r.com.

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