Insiders have long had their eye on him, but Tony West leapt straight into the limelight as an important FOB (Friend of Barack) and finance co-chair during Obama’s state primary campaign, when West helped raise a record $65 million. The two men have much in common—both are African American, fortysomething Harvard graduates and lawyers with a knack for dealing equally well with fat cats and the hoi polloi. West met Obama as a Kerry delegate in 2004 (he’s worked on six presidential campaigns), and if all goes well in November, he might pack his bags for D.C. and a chance to return, he says, to the principles he absorbed from Janet Reno, for whom he served as an assistant U.S. attorney. “Her day began and ended with integrity,” West recalls. Like Obama, West is anything but disillusioned by politics: If he doesn’t head east, he may run for office in Oakland, his new hometown. When he lost an assembly race in San Jose in 2000, he honored his promise to his wife (and ACLU bigwig), Maya, to move to Oakland, where she was raised. Considering that Maya is the sister of San Francisco DA Kamala Harris (another FOB), Thanksgiving dinner should be plenty interesting this year.

West's obsessions

His Oakland neighbors: “I love the people. I love the sense of community. When you’re interacting with Oaklanders, it’s just very real.”

Politicians who believe things “to the hilt”: “When you haven’t become so cynical and actually still believe politics can be a good thing, you are absolutely thrilled by moments when people take courageous stands—like Barbara Lee. Many were outraged when she cast the sole vote against the war, but history vindicated her.”

Crediting the masses: “Most politicians see Americans as passive consumers of political messages, which is why they believe negative campaigning works. But in the long run, the American people not only get it right, they respect people who stand up for what they believe in, even if they don’t agree with them on the substance.”

Oakland’s McCullum Youth Court: “This program, where I help out as a judge, is a courtroom run entirely by students, from the bailiff to the lawyers to the jury. The trial by peers gives first-time youth offenders a second chance by focusing on rehab, rather than punishment.”