Excitement spread like wildfire Friday afternoon when Wilson residents learned that U.S. Sen. Barack Obama will come to town on Monday.
Obama supporters stood in long lines for free tickets to the event. Those lines stretched from near the Wilson County Board of Elections on Douglas Street to the corner of Nash Street. Equally long lines flowed out of the newly opened office on Tarboro Street into the parking lot, a block away from AutoZone. Each person was allowed a maximum of two tickets.
Tickets were supposed to be available until 7 p.m. Friday night. But all of the tickets ran out long before the allotted time.
Anyone who would like to see Obama Monday but did not get tickets to the Wilson event already, will have to go to Chapel Hill.
"We are at capacity in Wilson, but if a person doesn't mind a little drive, they can still see the senator at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill later Monday night after he leaves Wilson," said Dan Leistikow, media spokesperson for the Obama campaign in North Carolina.
Those going to Chapel Hill will also need tickets to get into the rally. The locations to get tickets in Chapel Hill are on the Obama Web site NC.BarackObama.com.
The presidential candidate is coming to Wilson to hold a special town meeting at Beddingfield High School, 4510 Old Stantonsburg Road. The doors open at 4 p.m., and the program begins around 6 p.m.
Monday's town meeting will give citizens a chance to ask questions directly to Obama.
But on Friday afternoon, local congressman and supporter G.K. Butterfield stood in Obama's stead to officially open the Wilson "Obama for America" field office on Tarboro Street.
"North Carolina is very important to this presidential primary," Butterfield said. "Normally the presidential Democratic nominee has already been decided long before there is a primary here. But this time, we are playing a deciding role in who will get that nomination," said Butterfield.
He spoke to a crowd of about 100 people. Since January, 165,000 new Democrats have been registered in North Carolina, Butterfield said. There are 13,000 newly registered Independents, he added.
He told the group that it was because of their efforts that so many new people were registered to vote.
But he warned the supporters not to stop at registering themselves and others to vote.
"Take advantage of the opportunity and vote early. It is one way for Wilson to let her voice be heard," said Butterfield. "Our country is in a fiscal crisis. Our government spends $2 trillion and only takes in $1.5 trillion. Sen. Obama will reorder our priorities and get us out of the fiscal trouble we are in by 2012."
Monday's appearance in Wilson will be Obama's second trip to eastern North Carolina. On April 17, Obama, who is battling U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president, visited the campus of East Carolina University in Greenville to a crowd of about 8,000 people.
Clinton has not made an appearance yet in the area; her closest visits have been to Fayetteville, Raleigh and Jacksonville.
Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, spoke at Barton College April 12.
Carly Lindauer, a spokeswoman for Clinton's N.C. campaign, said Friday, "We are still working on the senator's schedule and have nothing to confirm in that area yet."
STAFF WRITER MATT SHAW ALSO CONTRIBUTED TO THIS ARTICLE.
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