That would be "Emil Jones"
References:
"Obama and Me" Dallas Morning Observer Feb 28, 2008
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-02-28/news/obama-and-me/
"Raising Obama" Vanity Fair March, 2008
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/03/obama200803
“Obama and Me” Dallas Morning Observer Feb 28, 2008
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-02-28/news/obama-and-me/
“...”He said, ‘Cliff, I’m gonna make me a U.S. senator.’”
“Oh, you are? Who might that be?”
“Barack Obama.”
Jones appointed Obama sponsor of virtually every high-profile piece of legislation, angering many rank-and-file state legislators who had more seniority than Obama and had spent years championing the bills...
“Raising Obama” Vanity Fair March, 2008
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/03/obama200803
“...Now, with Jones elevated to the senate presidency, Obama was approaching him with a cold-eyed proposal.
“After I was elected president, in 2003, he came to see me, a couple months later,” Jones recalled, relishing the tale. “And he said to me, he said, ‘You’re the senate president now, and with that, you have a lot of pow-er.”
Jones stretched out the word, as if savoring the pleasure of it, and his voice became very quiet as he continued: “And I told Barack, ‘You think I got a lot of pow-er now?,’ and he said, ‘Yeah, you got a lot of pow-er.’ And I said, ‘What kind of pow-er do I have?’ He said, ‘You have the pow-er to make a United States sen-a-tor!” Jones let out a soft, smoky laugh. “I said to Barack, I said, ‘That sounds good!’ I said, ‘I haven’t even thought of that.’ I said, ‘Do you have someone in mind you think I could make?,’ and he said, ‘Yeah. Me.”