Axelrod voices worry about Ill. seat, Giannoulias

In an interview with the New York Times, White House senior adviser David Axelrod openly worries about keeping President Obama's Senate seat in Democratic hands.

He also acknowledges the he and Obama failed to recruit state Attorney General Lisa Madigan to run over the state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, and he suggests that the Blagojevich trial could hamper the Democratic frontrunner.

From the Times:

Mr. Axelrod concedes that he and Mr. Obama failed to persuade Attorney General Lisa Madigan to run for the Senate seat vacated by Mr. Obama. “She would have walked into the seat,” Mr. Axelrod says. White House qualms about the Democratic frontrunner, Alexi Giannoulias, the Illinois treasurer, are self-evident, with worry that the Republican challenger, Representative Mark Kirk, will be needlessly formidable.

“The Blago saga will hang heavy over our politics, and that’s what Kirk’s banking on,” Mr. Axelrod says.