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Obama Proving Bay Area Hot Ticket

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By WILLIAM MARCH

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 20, 2008

Updated:

TAMPA - Whether out of sincere belief in Barack Obama or sheer curiosity to see a historic presidential candidate, Tampa Bay area residents rushed for tickets Monday to a rally now expected to fill the St. Pete Times Forum downtown on Wednesday.

"I just want to see him in person; he's making such an impression on America," said Mildred Hart of North Tampa, who called The Tampa Tribune on Monday afternoon in search of a ticket after being told the party office had run out. "I'm trying desperately to find one ticket."

Angelett Murray of Tampa, waiting in line at the Tampa Democratic party office, said she wanted "to be able to tell my kids I was there just before we had our first black president."

The Obama campaign was reluctant to say Monday how many tickets they had given out or how many people they expected to attend - probably not wanting to raise crowd-size expectations that could go unfulfilled.

Expectations grew anyway because of the unusually large crowds Obama has drawn elsewhere recently, including about 72,000 in Portland, Ore., on Sunday.

Campaign spokesman Josh Earnest said late Monday that about 2,000 remaining tickets still were expected to be available today from Democratic Party offices in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota.

"We have enough tickets that we can fill the venue if everybody with a ticket shows up," he said.

It seats about 20,000, depending on the seating configuration. If space is available, "We will do our best to accommodate people who show up without tickets," he said.

Candidates Now Turn To Florida

The rally, likely to be Tampa's most noteworthy event of the presidential campaign so far, takes place during a week when it appears the race for Florida is beginning in earnest.

Obama, John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton all will campaign in the state this week.

McCain will speak to a group of Cuban-Americans on Cuba policy in Miami today, a counterpoint to Obama's appearance there Friday to talk about the same subject to the Cuban American National Foundation.

Late Monday, Clinton announced that she would be in South Florida on Wednesday also for several events, but with no details.

Meanwhile, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean spoke in Tampa Monday night to a crowd of about 40 people, most of whom paid $1,000 each for the dinner. About half were Clinton supporters and half Obama supporters. Bill McBride and Frank Sanchez, leading fundraisers for Clinton and Obama respectively, hosted the event, billed as a reconciliation and unity dinner.

Dean left the private event without talking to reporters, but Sanchez said he told the crowd the Florida and Michigan convention delegations "will be seated and will participate in Colorado."

But according to both Ana Cruz, a political consultant and Clinton backer, and Sanchez, Dean didn't say how the delegates would be seated or whether they'd get to vote on the nomination.

Sanchez said Dean didn't suggest that the party had made any mistake by banning the Florida and Michigan delegations because both states held primaries earlier than party rules allow.

While he's here, Obama still won't advocate full seating of the contested delegations from Florida and Michigan, a campaign spokesman said.

Seating both delegations in full would give Clinton a net gain of 58 delegates - less than a third of Obama's current lead - and might end a controversy that may be harming him in the eyes of voters in those states.

But Earnest said that if Obama advocated ending the sanctions, it would "prompt more questions, with implications for Democratic contests down the road, the future of the party."

Obama Majority Likely Today

After today's primaries in Kentucky and Oregon, Obama is sure to have won a majority of the pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention, delegates whose votes are determined by state primaries and caucuses.

Obama has said the unpledged superdelegates, who can vote as they choose, shouldn't reverse the outcome of the primaries and caucuses, which implies he should be the nominee.

Not wanting to anger Clinton supporters, though, Obama on Wednesday will hint, but not declare outright, that he has in effect won the primary race against Clinton.

In an e-mail to supporters Monday, campaign manager David Plouffe called the pledged delegate majority "a major milestone," while Obama has called it "an important day."

"A clear majority of elected delegates will send an unmistakable message: The people have spoken, and they are ready for change," Plouffe said.

Earnest, the campaign's spokesman, said Obama isn't likely to go further during his Florida tour.

Nonetheless, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson shot back in a news release that Obama's "plan to declare himself the Democratic nominee after the Tuesday votes is a slap in the face to the millions of voters in the remaining primary states and to Senator Clinton's 17 million supporters."

In a biting evocation of President Bush, Wolfson said, "Declaring 'mission accomplished' does not make it so."

Tampa police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said the department expects traffic issues at Wednesday's event to be "no different from the average large concert."

It's likely there will be some anti-Obama demonstrations at the event, but Davis had no comment on whether any was expected.

At least some of the interest in Obama is out of curiosity, Democrats and Obama supporters said.

"It's not just committed Obama people, it's people who want to hear and learn more about him," said Karl Koch of Tampa, a veteran Florida presidential campaign strategist.

But if people come to see Obama out of curiosity, he said, that gives the candidate a chance to sell his message: "If a third are showing up purely to hear and get to know him, that's a victory."

WFLA Reporter Krista Klaus contributed to this report. Reporter William March can be reached at wmarch@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7761.

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