The Obama campaign announced today that it's brought Corey Ealons on board to serve as communications director for African American media. Ealons currently serves as the communiction director and deputy chief of staff for Alabama Rep. Artur Davis, and he previously worked as a regional political director for John Kerry's presidential campaign.

In a press briefing in Washington last month, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe noted the importance for the campaign of getting out the vote in the African American community. Without stellar turnout, Plouffe indicated, the campaign would have far less of a chance in targeted states such as Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia, all of which have voted Republican in the last three presidential elections.

The second new addition to the Obama campaign, as Politico's Ben Smith reports, is Hiam Nawas, hired to serve as a Muslim liaison. From Smith's reporting:

Nawas, a Jordanian-American who filled a similar role for the campaign of General Wesley Clark in 2004, has a role complicated by the fact that Obama has been forced repeatedly to deny that he is Muslim, a situation which grates on some Muslim-Americans.