Chicago- The President “Has been following this race closely and talking about November”, says Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin…his former fellow Senator from Illinois.

The President’s old job is being vacated by Senator Roland Burris who is not running for election. He was never elected, but rather appointed into the position by former Governor Rod Blagojevich under a cloud of controversy in 2008.

The Democrats meanwhile have had an increasingly tight race for that Senate seat with State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias leading the group.

However the Republicans have a clear leader in U.S. Representative Mark Kirk who has close to a 40 point lead against the next  Republican candidate in the latest Chicago Tribune poll.

The Illinois primary election is one week away, and the general election will surely heat up quickly with perhaps the President coming in to help out the Dems in his home state. Watch the sound byte here…{VignetteVideo assettitl=”dick+Durbin” id=”2117DD518118BC971C68A9340F029F61″ width=”375″ aspectratio=”1.77″ height=”211″ autoplay=”on” }