SPRINGFIELD, ILL. - As an Illinois legislator, Barack Obama fought to expand aid to the poor -- and backed legislation to withhold welfare from parents abusing drugs.

He opposed making it easier to impose the death penalty on gang members, and supported it for people who kill volunteers in community policing programs.

He consistently supported gun control. He also voted to let retired police and military personnel carry concealed weapons.

Just how liberal was he?

In all, Obama's record from nearly eight years in the Illinois Senate suggests someone who believes strongly that government can make life better for people, whether by offering financial help, banning dangerous guns or providing health care.

But Obama, now the Democratic candidate for president, was no ideologue. He often cooperated with Republican lawmakers, co-sponsoring their legislation and working with them on compromises.

"People on both sides of the aisle would find him to be someone who would reach across to find out why people think the way they do," said William Mahar, a former Republican state senator. "He wouldn't talk just to people who agreed with him."

Obama entered the state Senate in 1997 as a member of the minority party but was still interested in pushing some big ideas: universal health care, a tax credit for poor families, welfare improvements, more education money.

If fellow Democrats were wavering on some piece of legislation, one colleague recalls, Obama would often argue that they couldn't go wrong supporting a measure to help the needy.

Patrick Welch, a former Democratic state senator, said Obama's message was: "This is a basic part of our Democratic philosophy. That's why we're Democrats."

But those early initiatives failed in the Republican-controlled chamber, often without even coming to a vote.

Obama had more luck joining forces with Republicans to co-sponsor many measures that became law.

He was a key player in passing the first major ethics law that Illinois had seen in years, limiting lobbyists' gifts to officials. Along with one of the Senate's most conservative members, he co-sponsored legislation making it easier for convicts to seek DNA testing that might prove their innocence.

After federal officials agreed on an overhaul of the nation's welfare system, Obama worked with Republicans to enact those changes in Illinois. During the debate, two GOP senators made a point of thanking Obama for his long hours of helping them improve the bill.

Obama took liberal positions on such familiar issues as gun control, abortion and stem cells, but Welch recalls Obama as someone who wasn't terribly interested in revisiting those old arguments.

"Barack seemed to be more interested in monetary-type issues to help people," Welch said.