Obama plays narrow role in a last campaign

DETROIT — For President Obama, the last and loneliest campaign is about to end.

While Obama's Democrats struggle to keep control of the U.S. Senate — a battle with profound implications for his last two years in office — the president has been relatively absent from the campaign trail.

During a weekend rally at Wayne State University, Obama said he needs Democrats in office to help push an agenda that includes minimum wage hikes, equal pay for women, aid to education and improvements to health care.

"I want you to feel a sense of urgency," Obama told backers, asking them to get out the vote ahead of Tuesday's election.

Democrats who cheered for Obama said they understand the stakes.

"All the things the president has done are on the line right now," said Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, a Detroit educator who is running for the Michigan state Legislature.

Obama completed his campaign year Sunday by headlining rallies for gubernatorial candidates in Connecticut and Pennsylvania — and, at the first stop, running into hecklers of his deportation polices.

As protesters in Bridgeport, Conn., interrupted him at least four times, Obama said "the Republicans are blocking immigration reform" and "that's one more reason why we need a Democratic Senate."

Obama received a friendlier reception Sunday night in Philadelphia. When a woman shouted out "We love you!" to the president, he replied: "I love you, too — but I need you to vote!"

Most political analysts expect Republicans to gain seats in the U.S. House on Tuesday. The only question is whether Obama's party can maintain control of the Senate.

A Republican majority in the Senate would alter Obama's agenda, affect his judicial and staff nominations, and probably lead to more investigations of the administration. Obama would probably look more toward executive action — aides are preparing a series of orders on immigration policy — though there might be deals with Republicans on items like tax reform, free trade, and surveillance policies.

Despite the fight for Senate control, Obama has campaigned mostly for gubernatorial candidates. The president has appeared with Democrats at fundraisers and policy speeches throughout the year, but Saturday's rally at Wayne State was the only one of the last week to feature a Senate candidate, Michigan Rep. Gary Peters.

Barring a late schedule change, Obama's appearances Sunday in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, will be his last this year. He was also in Wisconsin on Tuesday, Maine on Thursday, and Michigan on Saturday.

Some Democratic Senate candidates have been publicly reluctant to embrace Obama and his agenda, especially in southern states where the president has particularly low approval ratings.

Administration officials said Obama has been focused on fundraising this campaign year. Obama backers have also been busy resurrecting the get-out-the-vote machine that propelled him to presidential election wins in 2008 and 2012, hoping that high turnout will preserve a Democratic Senate.

"What you've seen the president do is dedicate his time to doing what he can to support Democratic candidates," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

Obama has stressed turnout in his recent campaign appearances, making specific appeals to Democratic constituencies that include African Americans, Hispanics and single women.

Speaking to boisterous supporters at a Wayne State gym, Obama said that "I don't worry about you — I need you to grab a friend, I need you to get some classmates, I need you to get some co-workers."

In many ways, Obama and his backers are fighting a history that has been unkind to presidents in their sixth years.

Ronald Reagan's Republicans lost control of the Senate in the 1986 mid-term elections, his sixth year in the White House. George W. Bush and the GOP lost both the House and the Senate in 2006, his sixth year in office.

Obama, meanwhile, is headed to his second straight bad midterm election season. Four years ago, in 2010, Obama's Democrats lost 63 Houses seats and a net of six Senate seats.

Analyst Stuart Rothenberg, publisher of The Rothenberg Political Report, said Obama has "primarily been fundraiser-in-chief," while his personal appearances "have generally been limited to blue (Democratic) states and governor's races."

Predecessors have been in similar positions, Rothenberg said: "When presidents are unpopular, nobody wants them."

Supporters who gathered for Obama at Wayne State said they didn't blame candidates in other states for not wanting the president to campaign for them.

"Some of them are in seats that are kind of marginal," said Gay-Dagnogo, the legislative candidate. "You have to understand the landscape of where they are."

Wanda Imasuen, 66, a community organizer from New York who is in Michigan helping with turnout, said Obama "has to pick and choose" where he's going. But most Democrats know "it's urgent" that Democrats keep the Senate and pick up other offices across the country.

Political analyst Aaron David Miller, author of The End of Greatness: Why America Can't Have (and Doesn't Want) Another Great President, said Obama's schedule is no accident. Rest assured, he says, that the White House has spoken with Democratic Party officials and consulted state-by-state polling data in plotting where the president would go, and where he wouldn't go.

"They've done the math," Miller said.

Technically, this isn't President Obama's last election — he will presumably campaign for a Democratic successor in 2016. It is the last election for a Congress that he will have to work with before leaving office on Jan. 20, 2017.

Campaigning last week for Maine gubernatorial candidate Mike Michaud, Obama said "this is the last election cycle in which I'm involved as president," and the experience has moved him.

"It makes you a little wistful," Obama said. "Because I do like campaigning. It's fun."