Thaindian News

Washington, Apr 3 (ANI): US President Barack Obama intends to file his re-election papers as early as this coming week with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for 2012 Presidential campaign, Democratic officials familiar with his plans have said.

They have also said that Obama also would announce his candidacy to supporters by email and text messages.

The CBS news quoted a New York Times report as saying that Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, will formally open the doors to the 2012 campaign’s Chicago headquarters this week.

Obama would reportedly be the first president in several decades to campaign for re-election outside of the Washington.

“The president and I have discussed the challenges — and there are challenges. But I want people in the Chicago headquarters who live and sleep and eat and breathe re-electing Barack Obama as President,” one of the officials said.

A formal step of registering with the FEC would enable Obama to start raising money for the re-election effort. He is scheduled to travel to Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco this week to address events there.

There are reports that two former White House aides are preparing to start an independent political group supporting his candidacy.

In the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama had condemned the influence of such groups, not only discouraging their formation but also pressurising donors not to finance them.

However, in the wake of 2010 Citizen’s United Supreme Court decision, which allowed corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts on presidential campaigns, the Obama administration has signalled that it would accept money from independent political groups. (ANI)