Illinois voters sent a Democratic newcomer,
Barack Obama, to one of the state's two seats
in the U.S. Senate in 2004.Obama's landslide
victory in Illinois was significant on several
fronts. Firstly, he became the Senate's only
AfricanAmerican lawmaker when he was sworn
into office in January 2005, and just the
third black U.S. senator to serve there since
the 1880s. Moreover