Interest high in Obama inauguration tickets

WASHINGTON -- The presidential election may have just ended, but interest in tickets to Barack Obama's inauguration already is high.

"People are talking about it, that's for sure," said Steve Achelpohl, chairman of the Nebraska Democratic Party.

Achelpohl said he was getting hit up for tickets to an Obama inauguration as far back as May, but he received more requests as the election approached.

The inauguration ceremony will be Jan. 20 at the U.S. Capitol. Tickets to the ceremony are allocated to Senate and House offices, so those interested in attending should contact a member of their congressional delegation.

Aides to the Nebraska and Iowa delegations said they have not yet been notified how many tickets they will receive this time, but they are taking the names of ticket-seekers.

The Nebraska offices have coordinated in the past on requests. Retiring Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., will hand off requests that come into his office to Sen.-elect Mike Johanns, a Republican, who will succeed him.

In the past, ticket requests have sometimes outpaced supply, and that could certainly be true for the Obama inauguration.

It's up to the individual offices to determine the criteria for distributing the tickets.

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., will adopt a strategy after seeing how many tickets he is allocated and how many requests he receives, said his spokesman Jake Thompson.

Nelson had enough tickets to cover all requests he received for Bush's second inauguration in 2004, Thompson said.

There will be many events around Washington in connection with the Obama inauguration. The Washington-based Nebraska Society, for example, is planning a brunch for the day before or day after the inauguration.

Brenna Findley, chief of staff to Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said constituents interested in receiving tickets should contact King's Washington office. She said that the office received more requests for the 2004 inauguration than it had tickets but that staff worked with constituents to get them into other events around town.

"We were able to accommodate everybody in some way," Findley said.

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