Contest offers Obama donors chance to dine with candidate

June 7, 2007 (WLS) -- More than 8,000 people have responded to e-mail invitations for a chance to have dinner with presidential candidate Barack Obama. It is the latest example of how the internet is changing the face of politics. Senator Obama and other candidates can now reach millions of voters without ever leaving the office.

Barack Obama raised an all-time record $6.9 million on the internet in the first quarter of 2007 from 50,000 donors. And now the techies who created what may be the most popular campaign web site in political history have come up with new one: contribute $5 or more to the campaign and explain why you want to have dinner with the candidate.

Consultant Bruce Heuton, who lives on the North Side, got an e-mail Thursday morning offering a chance to have dinner with Barack Obama. He checked Obama's web site for details and immediately contributed $25.

"It was just a spectacular offer, because it gives us a unique opportunity to meet someone who is really important in the world, and to do so in a very egalitarian way," said Bruce Heuton, Obama supporter.

Retired chemistry teacher V.K. Brown of Hyde Park committed $50 after getting the same email Wednesday.

"I would love to have dinner with him. I do not care what it is a dinner of. I just really support that guy," said Brown.

"People are really excited, and there are a lot of people who really, really want to have dinner with him, and we're trying to make that as clear as possible," said Chris Hughes, Obama campaign.

Obama's top techie at campaign headquarters on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago is Chris Hughes, one of the founders of the enormously popular Facebook web site, who is now in charge of internet outreach for an Obama campaign that has a faith-based web page tapping into the religious community, an interactive "Walk for Change" page that's recruiting thousands of volunteers to walk for Obama in 50 states on Saturday, and the new page, "Face-to-Face with Obama," which attracted 8,000 contributions of $5 of more in the first 24 hours with a promise that four of the contributors will have dinner with Obama later this summer.

"We are making sure that everyday people could sit down and have a meal with him," said Hughes.

The dinner will be at a nice restaurant in Chicago or Washington later this summer. But the campaign's not sure how the four winners will be chosen, except that it won't be based on the size of the contribution. They got more than 8,000 contributions in the first 24 hours, and the deadline is not until next Wednesday at midnight.

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