Barrack Obama: His Time in the Illinois State Senate

Barrack Obama began his political career in 1996 and after an eventful campaign focused in the south-side neighborhood of Hyde Park he was elected to a seat in the Illinois Sate Senate as the 13th District representative. In 2000 he made a bid for a seat in the U.S House of Representatives; however he was defeated in the primaries by Booby Rush, the four-term incumbent candidate.

Not to be deterred in his political ambitions, however, Obama would continue to work hard in the Illinois State Senate passing many bills and reforms till his official resignation following his election to the U.S. Senate in November of 2004.

A review Obama's career in the Illionois State Senate, reveals many interesting and noteworthy accomplishments and works of legislation. One of which is noted by an issue of the Washington Post in February of 2007. In the issue the Washington Post points out his ability and willingness to work with the Republican Party despite his own Democratic ideals by mentioning his work on and contributions to many bipartisan legislation dealing with ethics and health care reform.

Many other points of interest during Obama's career in the Illionois State Senate are pointed out in a July 2007 article in The New York Times. This article credits Obama with taking the lead in the passage of a new state law that required the video recoding of interrogations dealing with homicide. The article also gives credit to Obama for pushing through another law dealing with law enforcement.

One that "required the police to collect data on the race of drivers they stopped as a way to monitor racial profiling." The article then continues to elucidate many other legislations in which Obama took part, saying that Obama "was a chief sponsor of a law enhancing tax credits for the working poor, played a central role in negotiations over welfare reform and successfully pushed for increasing child care subsidies."