It could have been a grim affair. Last night, state Senate candidate Wendy Davis -- who's giving the Republican incumbent, Kim Brimer, fits in what was expected to be an easy re-election campaign -- held a fundraiser at the estate of the ailing Fred Baron, whose battle with terminal cancer made news a day earlier.

But while the Democratic financier and former trial lawyer extraordinaire was believed to be resting at the Mayo Clinic, guests had some reason for hope. Just hours earlier, the FDA gave Baron "special approval" to use an experimental cancer drug that doctors say could be his only hope to fight the disease. Bill Clinton and cancer survivor Lance Amstrong pleaded with the agency to give Baron access to the medication.

All in all about 30 people showed up at Davis' $250-minimum-donation fundraiser held at Baron's 15,0000-square-foot residence in the elegant Preston Hollow neighborhood. There, amid regal estates decorated with McCain-Palin and other Republican yard signs --and just a block away from the pink Mary Kay mansion -- a cluster of cars with Obama bumper stickers parked outside the ivy-covered stone and brick wall that surrounds the trial lawyer's home. The fundraiser was expected to be a controversial event, given that Baron generated national headlines (and Republican ridicule) for trying to cover up John Edwards' affair with a former campaign staffer. But Baron's illness naturally stifled any people from calling attention to the function.

At 6 p.m., Wendy Davis, standing next to Dallas District Judge Martin Hoffman, greeted guests from just inside the entrance of the Baron estate. Several campaign aides were close by. The mood seemed understandably somber. Conversations were quiet and clipped and this reporter, who was politely told that the fundraiser was not an open event, couldn't hear the chuckles and peppy chatter that serve as the backdrop for most political functions. Earlier, the Davis camp had reached out to the Baron family to see whether they wanted to cancel the fundraiser, but they insisted that everything go as planned.