Lynchburg visit signals area in play for Obama

By Ray Reed

Published: August 19, 2008

Can’t make it tonight? Check back with NewsAdvance.com for live streaming video of the 6:30 p.m. event.

Why Lynchburg?

That was the question on many people’s minds Tuesday as the city prepared for Barack Obama’s campaign stop this afternoon at E.C. Glass High School.

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And, why the high school? That question popped up in an online forum at Liberty University, where presidential hopefuls including Republican John McCain have spoken.

Some of the political rationale for the Obama strategy emerged Tuesday while police, school officials and campaign staffers coordinated plans for a presidential campaign visit that’s all the more rare for Lynchburg because the candidate is a Democrat.

“Democratic campaigns have not made a strong play, and have not devoted resources to this area in the past,” said Kevin Griffis, Virginia communications director for the Obama campaign.

“We know we might not win in some of the more traditional Republican areas, but we think we can do a significantly better job than in the past,” Griffis said. “We’re not going to be able to do that by ignoring” Central Virginia, he said.

“We need to listen to the people of Lynchburg and hear what they have to say and give them a chance” to learn more about Obama, Griffis said.

The town hall format for Obama’s 6:35 p.m. appearance will include his responses to comments from the audience, campaign officials said.

John Lawrence, chairman of the local Democratic Party committee in Lynchburg, added some context for the Obama campaign’s decision to talk about his economic plan here after appearing this morning in Martinsville with U.S. Senate candidate Mark Warner.

“I guess after they decided to look for other places to stop in Central Virginia, Lynchburg was a good choice because the Democrats have made a lot of gains in what was visualized as a Republican area,” Lawrence said. He cited majorities that city voters gave to Democratic candidates including Warner, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Del. Shannon Valentine.

Still, Lawrence said, Obama’s appearance was organized by his national campaign and not by local Democrats.

A picture of the Obama campaign’s orchestration started to emerge Monday afternoon when the last details of the event were agreed upon.

Starting about 4 p.m., Lynchburg residents who had shown their interest by giving phone numbers to the Obama campaign received calls notifying them that tickets were available. By 5 p.m. there was a line of people outside the campaign’s Main Street storefront, and before 9 p.m. all 2,500 tickets were handed out.

That strategy may have contained the answer to the Liberty University students’ online question.

The Obama campaign had set up the appearance in a gymnasium filled with his supporters.

Liberty University had extended an open invitation last winter for all presidential candidates to appear on campus, and renewed it last spring, said Barry Moore, vice president of university relations.

“The invitation is out there. We welcome their calls,” Moore said.

The Obama campaign did not call anyone in the university’s administration to request a speaking venue, a Liberty spokesman said.

Nonetheless, Moore complimented E.C. Glass. “We applaud them for getting the senator to speak,” Moore said. “We feel it’s a great thing for greater Lynchburg to be highlighted this way.”

Obama’s campaign officials said he would meet with a small delegation of local elected officials and Democratic Party leaders. Confirmed participants included Lawrence, Vice Mayor Bert Dodson, Councilman Mike Gillette and former Lynchburg mayor Pete Warren.

Dodson said, “Virginia has always been a safe Republican state, even when the Democrats ran Congress. This speaks tremendous volumes to the feeling that Virginia is competitive this year. They wouldn’t be coming here if they didn’t think it was competitive” and could give its 13 electoral votes to a Democrat for the first time since 1964, Dodson said.

Mayor Joan Foster joined the crowd in line at the Obama headquarters Monday and got two tickets. But then the Obama campaign invited her to join the delegation that will meet separately with the candidate.

Her two tickets? “I gave them away,” she said.

Lawrence said the first clue that Obama might pass through Lynchburg came last Thursday when Sen. Jim Webb canceled a campaign appearance for 5th District congressional candidate Tom Perriello, which had been scheduled for today in Bedford.

Webb will now appear with Obama in Lynchburg.

Planning for the Obama appearance proceeded under the radar for several days, with secrecy demanded of school officials and other local people who helped set up arrangements.

“Somebody knew what was going on as early last Wednesday or Thursday,” Lawrence said. But, “They didn’t want to get people hyped up and then have it fall through.”

Clark Stevens, another state-level official in the Obama campaign, said “We told everyone as soon as it was confirmed.”

After Lynchburg, Obama will hold town hall meetings in Chester and Chesapeake on Thursday with voters. Kaine will appear with Obama in Chester, just outside of Richmond.

Although E.C. Glass will have its own crowd today at the same time as the Obama appearance — for a previously scheduled orientation program for incoming freshmen — police officials said traffic plans call for all streets to be open.

People who don’t want to attend either the Obama meeting or the orientation should avoid the neighborhood around Langhorne Road and Memorial Avenue, said Joanne Martin, Lynchburg’s director of communications.

Martin said the public will be required to park in The Plaza shopping center lot and walk across the street to the school. People with handicapped plates and a ticket will be allowed to park at the school, she said.

Martin said people are asked not to bring bags, pocketknives, pepper spray or items that can be perceived as weapons.

Security is being coordinated with the Lynchburg Police Department, State Police and Secret Service.

-Carrie Sidener