SEATTLE -- Sen. Patty Murray's annual fundraiser-cum-good deed recognition luncheon today features a top Obama campaign strategist.

The 16th Annual  "Golden Tennis Shoe Awards" luncheon has David Axelrod, the top strategist for the Obama re-election campaign, to rouse the crowd. The 2012 election is, after all, only 17 months away.

Award recipients are: 

-- Isaac Pope, a Centralia pediatrician who converted a two-story house into a clinic and day care center for severely disabled children:
-- Denise "Cookie" Bouldin, a Seattle police officer who organized a chess club for disadvantaged youth, where they learn non-violence skills, self-esteem and the consequences of their actions:
-- Mike Brown, a Vietnam era veteran who beat a meth addiction and now works with other veterans to get them into vocational training, stable home settings and community involvement.

The name of the award is a derivative  of the story told of Murray's early political career, when she reportedly decided to run after a politician told her she couldn't get things done, she was "just a mom in tennis shoes."

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