CBS) Terence Tolbert, the Nevada campaign director for Barack Obama's presidential campaign and a former top aide to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has died. He was 44.
A family spokesman says Tolbert died Sunday night in Las Vegas of a massive heart attack.
Tolbert was on leave from his job as the chief lobbyist for New York City's public schools at the state capital in Albany to work for the Democratic presidential nominee.
He had previously worked as chief of staff to Democratic state Assemblyman Keith Wright and in other government posts.
Bloomberg, who has switched his registration from Democratic to Republican to independent, called Tolbert one of the most hardworking people in the world and also one of the most likable.
In the latest CBS News poll released on Sunday, Obama held a 13 point advantage, 54 percent to 41 percent.
With little sleep, McCain was darting through seven swing states Monday, arguing that victory was virtually at hand despite national polls showing otherwise.
"My friends, it's official: There's just one day left until we take America in a new direction," the Republican Party's choice to succeed President Bush told a raucous, heavily Hispanic rally in Miami just after midnight.
Obama, comfortably ahead in national polls, was getting a later start with a rally in Jacksonville at midday and a swing through longtime GOP bastions that might go to his Democratic Party this time. It has been the longest and most expensive presidential contest ever - featuring for the first time an African-American as a major party standardbearer.
