On the anniversary of his historic election November 4, President Obama will visit the Madison area. The White House says Wednesday’s visit will be about education. There’s speculation the event meant to drum up support for a potential gubernatorial run by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Rumors have circulated that the Obama team is secretly encouraging Barrett to run for the seat

The event also coincides with a bill supported by Governor Doyle and Barrett to have the Milwaukee mayor’s office take control of city schools. Barrett argues such education reforms are looked favorably upon by the US Education Department and would put Wisconsin in better standing for federal stimulus funds.

The scheduled stop will be Obama’s first to the Madison area since November of 2008 while campaigning prior to the Democratic primary.

Correction: Obama’s last visit to the Madison area was February of 2008.

The state Treasurer’s office says a backlog of unclaimed property cases has been taken care of.

State Treasurer Dawn Marie Sass says they had been months behind on property claims, but not anymore. She says her staff worked hard to get them taken care of as quickly as possible.

Sass says the backlog was largely the result of a staff shortage in her office, followed by an increase in claims this year. She says they’ve had nearly 4,300 more claims filed in 2009 than the year before. Sass says that was difficult to handle with four staff positions vacant at the time.

However, she says staffing shouldn’t be a problem anymore with three of those positions now filled and the other recently approved.

AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (MP3 :55)