Obama speech: The hottest ticket in Denver

Organizers of the Democratic Convention said anyone could receive a ticket to see Barack Obama's historic nomination speech in Denver, not just party insiders. But that didn't turn out to be the case in Utah. The state Democratic Party received 43 "community credentials" to Obama's big speech on Thursday, all of which went to party activists and the spouses of the 28 state delegates who will attend the four-day convention next week. Earlier this month, the Democratic National Convention Committee announced that half of the 75,000 tickets to the speech at Invesco Field would go to Colorado residents, while nearly 10,000 more would go to the surrounding Rocky Mountain states. Convention organizers asked people throughout the nation, even Republicans, to apply for a credential. The Utah Democratic Party fielded hundreds of calls and received a flood of emails. Wayne Holland, chairman of the Utah Democrats, hoped he would get at least a few hundred credentials, but when the Obama campaign called they offered only 50. He said a week later it seemed that Utah would only get three. "It caused me some frustration," Holland concedes, but he doesn't disagree with the Obama campaign's decision to limit the tickets to Utah, even though the state is right next door to Colorado. "They got smart and
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decided they had to utilize these in key battleground states." That isn't Utah, a state that hasn't supported a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964 and where recent polls show Republican John McCain with a huge advantage. Holland scraped together the 43 tickets by combining the 18 given to the Obama campaign office in Utah with the 10 held by the state party. He also corralled some provided to unions like the Steelworkers. He still hopes to secure a couple additional seats, but those would also go to Democratic insiders and Obama volunteers. Salt Lake City Councilman J.T. Martin and his wife received two of the community credentials. They have donated to the Obama campaign and even met the Illinois senator when he held a Park City fundraiser. "I was calling anyone and everyone who would listen to me," said Martin, who was just able to find a hotel room in Denver on Friday. "We just felt that despite the hassle to be there and the expense to be there that this is a really important point in history." States like Nevada, New Mexico and even Montana are expected to send much larger contingents to the big speech, because the race is tight there. Utah isn't the only western state disappointed with its number of tickets. California only got 300, prompting Bob Mulholland, a campaign adviser to the California Democrats to tell The Denver Post: "They are treating us like Idaho right now." The state, with more than 30 million people , and a whopping 55 electoral votes, expected a whole lot more. Holland said the Convention organizers need to stay pragmatic, even if that means upsetting some Democratic strongholds like California and conservative states like Utah. "This is about winning this election," he said.