Roland Burris announced last week that he won’t campaign to retain the Senate seat that went vacant with the election of President Barack Obama.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois almost annihilated the career of a young Barack Obama almost 20 years ago when he easily beat back a primary challenge from the then-unknown state lawmaker by portraying him as less than authentically black, among other things.

Roland Burris has avoided controversy in his decades-long public career in Illinois, but he is a seasoned political player with deep ties to the Cook County (IL) Democratic Party.