Savannah —- In a year that both Democrats and Republicans are predicting a Barack Obama-driven surge in voters, an audience of African-American leaders is tough for a politician to resist.

Several statewide and congressional candidates —- only one of them a Republican —- appeared before the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials on Saturday in hopes of riding the wave of ballots expected in November.

"People are very excited. People are contemplating being a part of the process. The hip-hop culture —- they're calling me every day. They want to get involved," said Charles Steele, leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Atlanta-based civil rights group.

The war in Iraq, a moribund U.S. economy and the high cost of gasoline were the chief topics of conversation.

Two of five Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate, ecologist Rand Knight and Atlanta attorney Jim Martin, were among those who attended a morning question-and-answer session.

Knight focused on home foreclosures, which he said were being forced not just by the subprime loan crisis but by rising utility costs.

"I meet people every week who are having to give away their pets to the humane society while their kids are crying, taking their dogs in because they're having to make a choice between gasoline and food for their children and food for their pets," Knight said.

Martin, a longtime state lawmaker, emphasized his history on several civil rights issues.

"I can remember being on common ground with many of you in this room," he said. "The Bush administration is destroying this country, moving us in the wrong direction."

DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones, the only African-American in the U.S. Senate race, appeared at a luncheon later in the day. He did not address the relatively small but influential audience of several dozen gathered at Savannah State University.

Among congressional candidates, state Sen. Regina Thomas (D-Savannah) condemned the Bush administration's policy of extending the military service of recruits. "We need everyone in Congress to pass a bill right now, to stop, to cease 'stop-loss' in this military. It's just a backdoor way to the draft," she said.

Thomas, who is African-American, made no mention of the recent endorsement received by her opponent, Democratic incumbent John Barrow, by Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

"I expected that," she told reporters after the question-and-answer session. "It has helped me tremendously. A lot of people didn't even know who Regina Thomas was in this race."

She called Obama's endorsement a "quid pro quo," made in exchange for an endorsement by Barrow, a superdelegate, this spring.

Thomas' supporters have pointed out that Obama and Barrow, a white conservative Democrat, differ on topics such as the war in Iraq.

But Barrow, who attended the Black Elected Officials luncheon, said his differences with Obama were not the point. "This isn't about agreeing on all the issues. It's about focusing on the issues that we agree on," the congressman said. Chief among those issues, Barrow said, is the economy.

Throughout the day, the Obama presidential campaign provided much of the subtext.

Some of the most pointed remarks were made by the SCLC's Steele. He said that Michelle Obama has had rougher treatment than her husband because she has ancestors who were slaves, and Barack Obama, whose father was born in Kenya, does not.

"Why are they attacking Michelle Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, and not really attacking, to that degree, her husband?" Steele asked. "Because he has no slave blood in him. He does not have any slave blood in him, but Michelle does."

Steele admitted to the crowd that his remarks about the Obamas were intended to be provocative, but afterward he declined to expand upon them.

He said his larger point was that even if Obama wins the presidency in November, the problems facing African-Americans will still require an outside voice.