WASHINGTON – His political influence limited, President Barack Obama is pursuing core Democratic partisans and is narrowing his public campaigning to a handful of reliably Democratic states to mobilize voters who tend to stay home during midterm elections. Maine is among his planned campaign stops, however, he canceled Wednesday’s trips to the Northeast to meet with his Cabinet about the government’s response to

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President Barack Obama walks from Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Tuesday. Obama plans to come to Maine to campaign for U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, who is the Democratic candidate for governor. The Associated Press

“I’ve got to have a Congress that will work with me. That’s why this midterm is so important. This is as important as any election that’s taken place since I got elected president,” Obama told The Steve Harvey Morning Show on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for the campaign of U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine and a candidate for governor, said the campaign is still coordinating the details of the president’s visit, and has not released where and when Obama will appear. Messages for a White House spokesman was not immediately returned.

Hamstrung by low approval ratings and congressional candidates who want to keep their distance, Obama was kicking off the campaign’s final three-week push by pitching black radio listeners.

Obama told the Harvey radio show that young, minority and progressive voters did not turn out in large numbers in the last midterm, allowing for the tea party wave that has been fighting his agenda “every step of the way.” Obama said many of Harvey’s listeners probably aren’t thinking about the election, but “I need everybody to really pay attention to this thing.”

When it comes to finding useful places for Obama to stump with a candidate, the pickings are slim. Many of the most imperiled Democrats, particularly Senate incumbents, are running in typically Republican states where Obama is deeply unpopular. Few of those Democrats invoke the president’s name except to distance themselves from him.

Obama planned to campaign Sunday in Maryland for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Anthony Brown and in his hometown of Chicago for Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn. Obama will spend the last full week of the campaign appearing at public events for Democratic candidates for governor in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Maine, a White House official told The Associated Press. The official wasn’t authorized to comment by name and demanded anonymity.

In contrast, Democrats running in Senate races in such Republican states as Arkansas, Alaska and Kentucky have made it clear they don’t want to be seen with Obama. Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Kentucky Democrat seeking to unseat Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, won’t even say whether she voted for Obama.

Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana has run ads declaring Obama’s oil and gas policies “simply wrong.” Democratic Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas also have aired commercials taking note of their differences with Obama.

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