Will.i.am draws thin crowds to McAuliffe rallies

Hip-hop artist will.i.am is a big enough deal to star in a Super Bowl commercial with Bob Dylan, write and perform a song about President Obama that became an election-influencing Internet sensation, and even become the first celebrity to get hologrammed by CNN. Yet even Mr. "Yes We Can" himself cannot get Virginia voters excited about the 2009 election six months before Election Day. According to the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, only 30 people showed up to the Black Eyed Peas frontman's appearance with gubernatorial candidate and former Democratic National Committee chair Terry McAuliffe on Monday, May 11. Attendance was a little better at the pair's rally in Richmond later that day, where 80 people showed up according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
–photo courtesy Organizing for America/file photo by Lindsay Barnes