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Poll Opened: November 11, 2008
Poll Closes: January 20, 2009
Senator Asks Sites Not To Sell Inaugural Tickets
WASHINGTON - The senator overseeing Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony said Monday she's writing to Internet sites such as eBay asking them not to sell scalped inauguration tickets.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., also said she's crafting a bill that would make a federal crime of selling tickets to the historic event Jan. 20.
Feinstein, who chairs the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, said she foresees overwhelming demand for the 240,000 available tickets and has heard reports they may be sold for as much as $40,000 online.
The tickets are supposed to be free to the public and distributed through congressional offices.
Lawmakers' offices won't get the tickets until shortly before the inauguration to try to prevent scalping. In-person pickup will be required.
The office of U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, has received more than 430 calls requesting more than 1,500 tickets, spokeswoman Ellen Gedalius said.
Castor has not decided how to distribute the tickets her office receives. So far, her office staff is just taking contact information from those seeking tickets.
Gedalius does not know how many tickets Castor will receive.
Feinstein said regardless of how legislators decide to distribute their tickets, there will be no charge for them.
"These tickets are given for free to people. This is a major civic event of the time, and no one pays for their tickets, and we believe no one should be required to pay for their tickets," she said in an interview.
Besides eBay, Feinstein aides said they are looking at writing to Craigslist and other Web sites. An eBay spokeswoman, Nichola Sharpe, said the company was in discussions with the Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies but couldn't comment until an outcome was reached.
As of this morning, a search of eBay yielded plenty of inauguration items but no tickets to the event. However, the ticket site StubHub had tickets to the inauguration on sale from $1,249.99 to $5,350.
Feinstein said she was readying legislation for Congress' lame duck session, which begins next week, to make scalping the tickets a misdemeanor punishable by a yet-to-be-determined fine.
She said her own Senate office received 8,000 ticket requests the first day after the election.
Demand was overwhelming supply all over the Capitol. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., had received more than 15,000 ticket requests as of Monday morning, and his spokeswoman said they only expected to have about 500 tickets to give out, though allocations have yet to be made.
Feinstein said she's also concerned about security for the event, which will occur outside the Capitol with crowds likely spilling over the National Mall.
"I am very concerned that this be as secure as is humanly possible. It's a difficult area to secure, and we need to give it special attention, and that is in the process of being done," she said. Feinstein said she was "of course" concerned that Obama would be a particular target as the nation's first black president.
"We're going to do everything we can to see that he is fully protected," she said.
Feinstein will be attending a security briefing Wednesday with the U.S. Capitol Police, the Secret Service and the Armed Forces Inaugural Committee.
Aides couldn't estimate how many people would likely come to Washington on top of those with tickets.
"If you don't have a place to stay, I think you ought to reconsider coming. It is very cold that time of the year, and it's going to be very difficult to get around," Feinstein said.
Coincidentally, 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. The theme of the inaugural, "A New Birth of Freedom" - a phrase from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address - was chosen before Obama won the election.
"It's fortuitous it worked out that way," Feinstein said, "when you think that he will stand up there and take the oath of office and look out at the Lincoln Memorial, where these words are engraved."
Tribune reporter Neil Johnson contributed to this report.
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Reader Comments on this poll
Posted by ( rcg2 ) on November 11, 2008 at 8:38 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
free market anyone?
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Posted by ( tomcat ) on November 11, 2008 at 9:11 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Feinstein's just mad because she can't make any money selling them herself. What a pig!!
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Posted by ( DapperDave ) on November 11, 2008 at 9:16 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Voluntarily?
Why not just ask the tooth fairy to fix the U.S. economy?
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Posted by ( Michaelajv ) on November 11, 2008 at 9:30 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Brother. As if there wasn't enough money raised during the campaign for Obama. The millions that was raised, not all from within the U.S., could have and SHOULD have been put to much better use. Hey, maybe Putin, Medvedev and some of our other enemies want to buy some tickets for the inauguration to show their support for our new President?
THEY'RE happy at least.
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Posted by ( solar ) on November 11, 2008 at 9:40 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
The issue is that these are FREE tickets to be given out to people who WANT to go to the event. Being that it's run by the goverment, they don't want scalpers making money off a American Citizen that wants to attend, and should be able to attend for free.
If this were a Bucs game, it would be different because it's a private run company that charges people to attend.
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Posted by ( johnbirch ) on November 11, 2008 at 10:30 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Hey waita minute!.....How can Obama let this happen? A big elite party for bluebloods and showbiz folks but no one from the "hoods" across the fruited plains? Obama ain't one of the unwashed?
He's a member of the elitist class? He got you vote but you got no party?
Go figure....What? there ain't gonna be no mortgage payment or free gas tank fillup? Hey Obama..you promised!
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Posted by ( whasup ) on November 11, 2008 at 10:43 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Why not let the public buy these tickets? I fear the members of Congress will give the tickets only to their buddies...those who make under-the-table promises of support, leaving out the REAL public. If the only way the real public can get these tickets is to buy them then let the market reign.
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Posted by ( gina1108 ) on November 11, 2008 at 11:33 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
I say more power to these brokers/scalpers. People are obviously crazy enough to pay out the ear for a FREE ticket.
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Posted by ( RobKay ) on November 11, 2008 at 12:06 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
If its illegal for an individual to scalp tickets, why should it be OK for a company to do the same thing? Anytime anyone tries to sell something for an increased price without adding any value to it, it should be illegal!
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Posted by ( Dmommy ) on November 11, 2008 at 12:31 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Solar, Wonderful and RobKay offer the only intelligent comments so far. Any of you racist backwoods idiots want to continue with your hate filled posts, go right ahead. It is a free country and Obama is your President-Elect whether you like it or not. Lord knows I haven't enjoyed the last 8 years of Bush so I look forward to at least the next 4 years watching all you Bush Lovers squirm in your seats and blow smoke out of your ears.
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Posted by ( Concerned1963 ) on November 11, 2008 at 12:32 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
robkay... If it were illegal to sell at a higher price than you paid for goods, please explain to me the concept of 'profit'.
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Posted by ( HMS24 ) on November 11, 2008 at 12:52 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
IF THE KOOL-AID DRINKERS WANT THE TICKETS THAN THEY SHOULD PAY WHATEVER THE PRICE OF THE MARKET IS. IT WILL BE THE LAST TIME YOU WILL HAVE TO PAY FOR THEM BECAUSE BHO AKA "THE MESSIAH" WILL KILL OUR GREAT COUNTRY WITH HIS WHACKO SOCAILIST FRIENDS BE CARFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR YOU LEFTIST REJECTS GET OFF YOUR ARRSS AND GET A JOB
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Posted by ( Dmommy ) on November 11, 2008 at 1:11 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
HMS24-USING ALL CAPS IS LIKE YELLING! The market price of the tickets is FREE. If you think Obama is going to kill the country, what is it that W. has been doing the past 8 years? By the way, I have a job and I stopped drinking kool-aid when I was 10.
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Posted by ( HMS24 ) on November 11, 2008 at 1:27 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Dmommy
when bho doesn't come thru with any of his lies oh i mean promises then you might wake from the mind altering trance that he has his sheep in. IT TAKES YELLING TO GET THRU TO THE SHEEP!!!
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Posted by ( thisoneguy ) on November 11, 2008 at 2:34 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
All of us hate mongers make me long for a Bill Clinton dictatorship, I say Powell does a coup;)
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Posted by ( Michaelajv ) on November 11, 2008 at 2:46 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Powell back-stabbed the Republican party by endorsing Obama, in retaliation for the way he was treated by Bush. He abandoned his ideology for the sake of payback.
He lost my respect when he did that.
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Posted by ( Dopamine ) on November 12, 2008 at 11:33 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Seems to me that Barack Obama has been a aid to the economy. He raised a record breaking amounts of for his campaign. But as usual... The biggots and haters on TBO are jealous. Obama has raised over a quarter billion dollars. "Obama spent more than $20 million on television ads in 17 states including more than $3 million in Pennsylvania and more than $2 million each in Florida, Michigan and Ohio. McCain in that same time frame spent just $7.2 million in 15 states. Even when the Republican National Committee's independent expenditure spending in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin is factored in (a total of $5.3 million)." This has surely helped the economy. Obama was elected because he is a "money" maker for the country. I believe in a free market so the tickets should be sold to anyone willing to pay for them. The Republicans are just mad that they abandoned intelligence for greed...... Republicans/Conservatives need to continue doing their jobs as haters and we democrats/progressives will continue to keep them in the rear view mirror....
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