NEW INFORMATION: Obama campaign worker allegedly assaulted at Caledonia home

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CALEDONIA - A campaign worker going door to door on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama was allegedly assaulted Saturday afternoon by a resident of a home where a campaign call was made.

In a telephone interview broadcast Saturday night, WISN-TV (Channel 12) identified the worker as Nancy Takehara, 58, of Chicago.

Sgt. Toby Schey of the Caledonia Police Department said Saturday night that there was no medical assistance requested by Takehara, who said the suspect hit her in the face and pulled her hair.

"The man terrified me," Takehara said in the television interview.

Schey said no arrest had been made as of Saturday night; the investigation of the incident was ongoing, he said. Schey said the report, once complete, would be forwarded to the Racine County District Attorney's office for consideration of possible charges.

On Saturday, police were not releasing the identity of the suspect, or the exact location of the incident, because no arrest had been made and to ward off potential acts of retaliation. But Schey confirmed that the incident occurred in the vicinity of 4 Mile Road and Aberdeen Lane on the village's east side.

Schey said a preliminary investigation reveals that two campaign workers had gone to the home just before 1:30 p.m. He said the homeowner apparently did not share the same political views as the campaign workers, and words were exchanged. The homeowner then allegedly forcibly escorted one of the campaign workers from his property.

A reader posting a comment on The Journal Times Web site released a name and address of the alleged suspect. That comment was removed from the site, but a call was made to the house to inquire if the person had been involved in the incident.

No call was returned from that residence as of late Saturday night.

In the television interview, Takehara said she had received a call from Obama later Saturday.

"Sen. Obama understood, reassured me, he was wonderful," Takehara said. "It made me feel connected to this government again."

Takehara made a plea for negative campaign tactics to cease.

"This negative stuff has to stop," she said. "We're all Americans. This is about protecting our democracy, not about attacking each other."

Takehara was to continue her campaign work in the Chicago area today, WISN reported.

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