CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Sen. Hillary Clinton is returning to West Virginia for a campaign stop, this time to endorse fellow Democrat Anne Barth.
The former first lady is scheduled to stump for Barth on Friday at the University of Charleston. The rally is free and open to the public.
Clinton last visited West Virginia just before her overwhelming win in the state's May presidential primary.
Barth is challenging Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, the only Republican in West Virginia's congressional delegation, in the 2nd Congressional District.
Several national political analysts have rated the 2nd District race as competitive, though Capito is favored.
Despite Clinton's victory in the state primary, Sen. Barack Obama captured the Democratic Party nomination and is fighting Republican Sen. John McCain for the presidency. Clinton contested the nomination to the end, but has since headlined several fundraisers and made several campaign appearances for Obama, as has her husband, former president Bill Clinton.
Tom Vogel, who heads Obama's presidential campaign in West Virginia, said he wasn't sure how much Clinton would stump for Obama during her visit.
"I know everywhere she goes she does campaign for Sen. Obama. I would hope that she would talk about and campaign for Sen. Obama when she's in town," he said, shortly after he learned for sure Monday afternoon that Clinton would be in Charleston on Friday.
"She's very popular," Vogel said. "I think she helps Anne Barth, I think she helps Barack Obama, I think she helps the whole Democratic ticket coming in."
Clinton will focus mostly on Barth, said Barth spokeswoman Talley Sergent, but will stump for Obama as well.
"She's been supporting Sen. Obama wherever she goes," Sergent said. "I don't think that's going to change here."
Barth was a longtime former aide to one of Clinton's Senate colleagues, Sen. Robert C. Byrd.
- FROM STAFF, WIRE REPORTS

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On 1/18/07 she voted in lockstep time after time blocking fellow West Virginian Nick Rahall's efforts to repeal a huge corporate tax break that oil and gas firms had been getting since '04. In that series of votes, again, with her fellow Repubs, she clearly demonstrated her party's refusal to take that $13 billion to $15 billion in revenues the tax break repeal would've produced and set the money aside for appropriations that would go to renewable resources.
Why has she become a corporate-loving DC insider?
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