Giuliani Plans First Trip to Iowa

Former New York City mayor and possible presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani gestures while speaking on combating crime and gang activity in Los Angeles during a news conference in Monterey Park, Calif., Monday, March 5, 2007. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) (Nick Ut - AP)

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WASHINGTON (AP) _ Sen. Barack Obama says he is connecting with voters in his presidential campaign because "this is seen as a change election, and right now at least, we've come to represent that change."

The Illinois Democrat, who has moved closer to front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton in the polls, made the comments after speaking at a National Council of La Raza awards banquet.

He complimented the New York senator for her appearance in Selma, Ala. over the weekend at the same time that Obama was marching with civil rights activists there.

"She gave an excellent speech and was very gracious," Obama said in a brief interview.

Obama told the group at the La Raza event that an immigration bill stronger than the one passed by the Senate last year has a good chance of getting through Congress this year "and I hope the president continues to listen to his better instincts."

Legislation passed by the Senate last year combined efforts to control illegal immigration while creating a guest worker program and providing illegal immigrants already in this country with a path to citizenship.

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WASHINGTON (AP) _ Moderate Republicans said Tuesday they are reviving a group aimed at winning over the political center that deserted the GOP in the 2006 midterm elections.

The Republican Leadership Council was founded in 1993 to expand the party's base, but has not been active in campaigns since 2003. It's now attempting to recruit candidates who are fiscally conservative, but moderate on social issues.

Former Gov. Christie Whitman of New Jersey, former Sen. John Danforth of Missouri and former Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steele want to revitalize the RLC, which has a counterpart in the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. The RLC is being combined with Whitman's political action committee IMP-PAC _ It's My Party, Too.

"After the losses in 2006, the reaction was overwhelming that we need to get the Republican Party back to its fiscally conservative roots," Whitman said, adding that the GOP needs to be "a little less judgmental."