Obama coming to state
Published 12:00 am Friday, January 25, 2008
and Leesha Faulkner
The Selma Times-Journal
Sen. Barack Obama will be in Alabama Saturday, but nobody is saying if he&8217;ll come to Selma.
Obama is scheduled to visit Selma Birmingham Sunday, but a Secret Service team made a visit to Selma on
Thursday morning.
Although local law enforcement officials would not comment on Obama&8217;s visit or the activities of the Secret Service, Dallas County Sheriff Harris Huffman did confirm his department had preliminary meetings with government agents.
Attempts to reach representatives of Obama at his Senate office in Washington and his national campaign office were unsuccessful. The office of U.S. Representative Artur Davis in Selma, Obama&8217;s state campaign chairman, also could not confirm the Illinois Senator&8217;s visit to the area.
Sen. Hillary Clinton&8217;s staff also declined to say if she would make an appearance soon in Selma. Marion Steinfels, who staffs Clinton&8217;s Alabama campaign office, said she was unaware of any scheduled stops by the senator soon. Steinfels also said she&8217;d received other inquiries.
Obama and fellow Democratic hopeful Clinton took part in Selma&8217;s Bridge Crossing Jubilee last March. Obama gave an impassioned speech during a morning service at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church on March 5 of last year. Then he &8212; along with Clinton, former President Bill Clinton and thousands of people from around the country &8212; crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge together that afternoon.
Clinton has been invited to return this March to the event, Jubilee, but has not confirmed.