Reporter's notebook: Scrapping for tix in Denver

The last morning breakfast of the Utah delegation was jammed Thursday morning, with many new Utah Democrats in town looking for tickets to Thursday night's historic speech at INVESCO Field at Mile High when Barack Obama accepts his party's presidential nomination.

Utah State Democratic party chairman Wayne Holland said over the past few days he has "begged, borrowed and stolen" to get more tickets to the event. He said for the size of the Utah delegation — just 29 delegates — he believes his staff has rounded up a greater percentage of tickets based on size than any other delegation except the host state of Colorado.

And for those who still couldn't get tickets, there are a number of "watch" parties around Denver where Democrats can gather together and watch Obama on TV.

There may not have been a million people watching, but at the delegate breakfast Holland and Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon gave their brief roll call speeches. They didn't get a chance to make those speeches during Wednesday night's roll call of the states. That's because the roll call is alphabetical, and with "U" coming so late in the roll call, New York, with Sen. Hillary Clinton giving the call, had already moved that Obama be picked by acclamation.

While Obama may not be coming to Utah to campaign this year (Utah is too red of a state and will almost for sure vote for GOP candidate John McCain), outdoorsmen and energy-supporters can still support Obama and feel good.

David Hayes, Obama's top energy adviser, addressed the Utah delegation Thursday morning saying the senator has a multi-faceted and reasonable energy plan, which was released on Obama's Web site several weeks ago.

"While McCain and the Republicans just want to drill our way out of our oil crisis, Sen. Obama has a plan that will create 5 million new jobs in renewable energy," said Hayes, a top natural resource administrator in Bill Clinton's presidency.

Obama "is not an ideologue. We have to be smarter about energy supply and conserve at the same time," said Hayes.

Profits on free

Utah Democratic executive director Todd Taylor tells this funny story: When someone comes in to volunteer their help at the state office headquarters, they are sometimes set to the task of making campaign buttons.

When state chairman Wayne Holland recently attended a union meeting in Las Vegas, he was amazed to see a number of the delegates wearing "I'm a Utah Republican for Obama" button — buttons that are free at party headquarters.

Asked where they got them, one man said he drove to the convention and stopped at a bookstore in Murray, where the buttons were for sale. He bought one. Those free buttons apparently have resale value.

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