“To solve this crisis and to ease the burden on our states, we're going to need action, and we're going to need action swiftly,” he said. “[I]f we're listening to the governors, then the money that we spend is going to be well-spent. And it means that it's going to get working faster, and the people in your states are going to experience prosperity sooner.”

Governors and governors-elect from nearly every state attended. President-elect Obama quoted Justice Louis Brandeis, who said “a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory,” and encouraged Democratic and Republican governors alike to seek creative solutions.

“We are not going to be hampered by ideology in trying to get this country back on track,” he said. “We want to figure out what works.”

In Illinois, the attention has focused on Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who some African Americans in Chicago are pushing to replace Obama and continue a tradition of black representation from the Land of Lincoln.

Even before Obama, Carol Moseley Braun served the state as its first black senator in the 1990s. Obama followed in her footsteps and Jackson could follow in his. The decision rests with Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat.

Jackson is not alone in the hopes of filling Obama's seat. Rep. Danny Davis, Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones and former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris have also thrown their hats in the ring, according to NNPA columnist Ron Walters.

In New York, the attention has turned to a previously little known African American mayor of Buffalo, Byron Brown, who because of his location upstate, his support from other mayors and his race, may have a good shot of becoming the Empire State's first black senator just a year after David Paterson became its first black governor. Paterson, of course, will make the selection.

Other factors will weigh on Paterson's decision besides race and geography. The governor may also be thinking about his own re-election campaign and could use the Senate choice as a way to elevate a political rival, such as Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and remove him as a threat in the governor's race.

But with Mayor Brown a known contender for the job, Governor Paterson may find it difficult to skip over a qualified African American candidate from upstate to pick a well-known establishment figure like Cuomo. The New York Times reports that a number of elected officials from western New York are publicly urging Paterson to appoint Brown, thus heightening the pressure.

Like Illinois, New York has quite a few high profile African American political figures, and Brown is by no means the only black candidate on the list. Other contenders include New York City Comptroller William Thompson and U. S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, according to Walters.

SKIP