Thursday, July 24, 2008

You Want Into Invesco? You're Going To Have To Work For It

WE'VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com

As I expected, the DNC and the Obama campaign aren't going to let just anybody into Invesco to watch Obama's historic acceptance speech. Chuck Plunkett from the Denver Post has the first look at the process for getting tickets.

In a half-hour interview Wednesday with The Denver Post, Obama's deputy campaign manager, Steve Hildebrand, said he wants to use the ticketing process as a massive recruitment tool meant to bring in supporters from all 50 states and energize them to carry the campaign into the final 60 days of the general election.

"We're going to ask those 80,000 people in that stadium to march out of there and go with very specific instructions and goals to register millions of new voters," Hildebrand said.

...

Those who want a seat will begin the process at their local Democratic Party office. While demonstrating their ability to attend, they also will be encouraged to sign on to the campaign as volunteers.

"They fill out a form; there's a conversation," Hildebrand said. "We ask them and encourage them to register voters and to get out the vote and those activities that are important to us. It's not a requirement, but it's going to be an encouragement."

Another use of the Aug. 28 speech meant to leverage public support is to use a technique popular with the campaign to hand out names and phone numbers during its events and ask participants to use their cellphones to make get-out-the-vote calls.

And glimpse at how the seating will be...

By seating the 6,000 delegates down on the field normally defended by the Denver Broncos, and by keeping the number of journalists, technicians and VIPs at the same level as those attending the Pepsi Center events earlier in the week, the campaign could bring in more than 60,000 members of the public, Hildebrand said.

I guess I'll see you on the field!

Bonus Video of Howard Dean touring the convention sites (Thanks Jed!)

Click here to sign up with the DNCC for more info on Invesco as it comes out.