Obama to headline Chicago campaign fundraiser for Duckworth next month

President Barack Obama will visit Chicago on Oct. 9 to raise money for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Duckworth, a campaign official said Wednesday.

The $1,000-a-ticket fundraiser will be held at the Stony Island Arts Bank in the Grand Crossing neighborhood. The maximum donation is $12,700, which gets the donor a photo opportunity. Hosts include Obama Foundation Chairman Martin Nesbitt and wife Dr. Anita Blanchard.

Duckworth, a two-term congresswoman from Hoffman Estates, is challenging one-term Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk of Highland Park in the Nov. 8 election. The contest is for the U.S. Senate seat held by Obama before he became president.

Democrats are eyeing the Illinois Senate spot as a likely pickup as Kirk narrowly won in 2010 and the state trends Democratic in presidential election years. But Kirk has been on the attack for weeks with TV ads questioning Duckworth's time as former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's onetime Veterans' Affairs chief.

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