Requests for tickets to inaugural pour in
Posted on Sunday, November 23, 2008
WASHINGTON — The inaugural fever gripping the nation’s capital has spread to Batesville and Fayetteville, Pine Bluff and Little Rock, as Arkansans join the clamor to watch the swearing-in, march in the parade and dance at a ball.
Nowhere is the infectious atmosphere more evident than in the offices of Arkansas’ congressional delegation, where the phones won’t stop ringing with inquiries about all things inaugural, including an overwhelming demand for the limited number of tickets available for President-elect Barack Obama’s Jan. 20 swearing-in ceremony.
“We stopped taking requests once we got over 2, 000,” said Lisa Ackerman, a spokesman for Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor. The office of his counterpart, Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln, got requests for more than 5, 000 tickets.
In every Arkansas congressional office — Democratic and Republican — the story is the same.
“At this moment, you have to put party politics aside,” said Sara Lasure, a spokesman for the state’s only Republican member of Congress, John Boozman. His office has received more than 700 ticket requests. “It’s a historic event which everybody in the country wants to see.”
As a result, the entire delegation is joining forces to figure out how to distribute the tickets they will be allotted. Most have posted information about inaugural tickets and events on their official Web sites.
Each office expects to receive about 200 tickets — there are a total of 240, 000 — which will be distributed just days before the ceremony and must be picked up in person. The tickets are free, and available only through congressional offices, so organizers have warned repeatedly against purchasing any tickets online, saying any such offer would be bogus.
“The whole delegation is working together to help as many constituents as possible,” Ackerman said. “We’re trying to spread them as far as possible.”
During Bill Clinton’s inaugurals, there were thousands of tickets available for his home state, Ackerman said. But this year, the guy being sworn in hails from the land of Lincoln rather than the home of the Hogs. “Now there’s going to be a lot more ‘nos’ than ‘yeses, ’” she said.
Four years ago, the Arkansas delegation had a different supply-and-demand problem.
“For Bush, we had extra tickets,” said Ackerman, who recounted staff members sharing them with other congressional offices that needed them.
Very few of these tickets will get the bearer an actual seat. Most are for standing room only. They will simply allow admittance into the closer viewing areas near the Capitol. Construction on the platform where the 44 th president will take the oath of office began in September covering the steps of the west front of the Capitol — the side facing the National Mall.
Beyond that, no ticket will be required to join the thousands — perhaps millions — of spectators expected to flood Washington for the 52 nd Presidential Inauguration. City officials are planning for as many as 4 million people to fill the Mall — the twomile expanse of lawn between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial. Many will have to settle for watching Obama’s swearingin and inaugural address on the jumbo screens that officials say will be erected along the Mall as well as along the Pennsylvania Avenue parade route.
“The Mall actually may be the best seat in the house.... It’ll kind of be like the world’s biggest stage and auditorium on January 20 th,” Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty told The Washington Post.
ARKANSANS’ PLANS That’s just fine with Pat O’Brien, the Pulaski County clerk, an early Obama supporter who plans to be on hand for the festivities. “Whether I’m a mile back and have to see it on a Jumbotron, that’s not the point,” he said. “Being together with so many other people who viewed this race as an opportunity to move this country forward in a progressive manner is something I wouldn’t miss.” O’Brien has become an unofficial “communications hub” for others who hope to make the trek to Washington for the inaugural. He’s lucky to have an aunt in nearby Annapolis, Md., so he’s got a place to stay.
Others will have to make do with what they can find for housing.
Several students from the University of Arkansas are working with officials at Catholic University in Washington to find sleeping quarters. Adrain Smith, assistant director of UA’s Center for Leadership and Community Engagement, said he has heard enough students express a desire to attend that he’s hoping to organize a group trip that will include a seminar with other college students about the role of government in their lives.
“I have hope the government will be of the people and for the people,” said Smith, who hopes he and his students “will be more energized and more actively engaged as citizens.”
Even as hotel rooms in Washington — and throughout the mid-Atlantic region — are filling up, many plans for the festivities surrounding the inaugural remain to be determined. The situation is complicated by the different committees organizing the different aspects of four days of events that will begin the weekend of Jan. 17-18, then encompass the federal Martin Luther King Birthday holiday on Monday and Inauguration Day on Tuesday. While Congress oversees the actual swearing-in ceremony — as well as a prayer service beforehand and a congressional luncheon afterward — that’s only one piece of the inaugural pie.
BANDS’ HIGH HOPES There’s also the inaugural parade, which is handled by the Armed Forces Inaugural Committee. Applications were due last week, and officials have said they received more than 1, 300 requests to participate in the parade. That compares with about 400 applications for President Bush’s second inaugural; about 90 of those groups were selected.
Among those who have applied are at least two Arkansas bands with high hopes — the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff’s 250-member marching band, the Marching Musical Machine of the Mid-South, and the Pipe and Drum Band from Lyon College in Batesville, a 20-member bagpipe band. Both bands have performed at venues around the country, including before former President Clinton, but neither has been in an inaugural.
“We’re really jazzed about it, and we’re really excited,” said Jim Bell, Lyon College’s band director.
John Graham, UAPB’s band director, was just as enthusiastic. “I really feel like we’ve got a great chance,” he said. “This group is deserving. We’re as good as anyone can ask us to be.”
They expect to find out in early December whether they’ve been selected to participate.
In addition to the parade, there are all those inaugural balls, which are coordinated by the Presidential Inaugural Committee, essentially an extension of the Obama campaign, which has yet to formally begin operations. The PIC, as it is known, is the group that will be in charge of the big-name entertainment that will headline what are usually about a dozen official balls.
During the Clinton years, the Arkansas Ball was the president’s first stop on inauguration night. It featured A-list entertainers such as Sheryl Crow and Bruce Hornsby at one of Washington’s largest venues. This year, however, Arkansas will likely be part of a regional ball that will include several other states.
But on inaugural eve, there will be an Arkansas Gala sponsored by the Arkansas State Society, the organization of Arkansans who live in Washington. The black-tie ball will be at the Washington Court Hotel and feature celebrities of the political kind, although organizers are working to secure an Arkansas band for the event.
The $ 150-per-person tickets will be available in about two weeks, said Glenn Mahone, the state society’s president who has organized such festivities dating back to Clinton’s first inaugural in 1992.
“This is going to be the Arkansas event to go to,” said Mahone, who expects Arkansas ’ congressional members, along with other current and former elected officials, to attend. The Clintons have been invited.
“The calls and e-mails I’m getting remind me of the Clinton galas we did — it’s that big.”
THE RUSH IS ON Mahone’s phone has been ringing, and his “in” box is brimming with requests from Arkansans who want to know what will be happening in conjunction with the official events. “It’s not just Arkansans,” said Mahone, who has been coordinating his efforts with the congressional offices, “but people who have some kind of connection to Arkansas from all over. I even got a call the other day from American Somoa.” Even for a city accustomed to big events — and 15 million visitors annually — this inauguration holds the potential to set records. Security, emergency and logistical crews will be bolstered by about 5, 000 members of the military and 4, 000 additional officers from 93 law-enforcement agencies across the country, officials have said.
Many streets will be closed, so the Metro, the city’s subway system, plans to run continuous rush-hour service throughout Inauguration Day to transport what it expects to be the largest crowds in its 32-year history.
“It will be sardine crushload on the way in, and sardine crush-load on the way out,” system spokesman Lisa Farbstein has said.
“I’m sure it’s going to look like New Year’s Eve on Times Square,” said Angela Guyadeen, spokesman for Arkansas’ Democratic Rep. Marion Berry.
But none of that is likely to matter to those who want to be on hand for the historic event.
“For some people, this is like a political Woodstock,” Pulaski County Clerk O’Brien said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s perfect as long as they’re there.”
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