Here’s the info we have all been waiting for. From Insidenova.com
By Uriah A. Kiser
Published: November 1, 2008
Barack Obama will hold his final campaign rally at the Prince William Fairgrounds in the Manassas area Monday night.
The event will begin at 9 p.m. and is expected to welcome nearly 40,000 people.
The presidential nominee is expected to talk about the economy, health care and providing tax relief for Virginia residents, campaign spokesman Bobby Whithorne said.
This is Obama’s 11th trip to the commonwealth since the end of the primary season in May.
The Illinois senator spoke to about 7,000 who packed the Nissan Pavilion in Bristow on June 5, after he became the Democratic presidential nominee.
There, he was joined by Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Sen. James Webb as he thanked his principal rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton, for making him a better campaigner.
Manassas Park was announced on Friday as the possible host for the Illinois senator’s campaign stop, but city officials now say they have no venue large enough for so many people.
Signal Hill Park and Manassas Park High School were two of the sites the city was considering to stage the event, City Manager Mercury T. Payton said.
Payton learned just before 2 p.m. on Saturday his city was not chosen.
“I think it was just a matter of logistics and the fact we couldn’t hold as many people as he needed to hold,” said Payton.
Payton didn’t consider the campaign’s decision not to hold the rally there a negative blow to the city.
Obama is expected to return home to Chicago after the Manassas area rally, Whithorne said.
all,
the consession stands will be open all evening and there will be some awesome entertainment ‘tween 5 and 9.
working on the parking, but will advise.
this is huge for us
He found out just before 2 PM on Saturday?? He’s out of the loop. The Secret Service, local police, fire and rescue and a host of others were out at the fairgrounds at 11 AM yesterday going over logistics. I guess they forgot to call Mr. Payton.
Now we know where that expression about forgetting to send someone the memo comes from 😉
Sounds to me like there are a lot of first responders, decision makers, and ‘powers that be’ out there stomping over the fairgrounds. Mr. Payton should be glad that he is out of the loop. Does that mean he won’t get the bill for the function?
Unfortunately, the bill will be paid by local taxpayers…and what a bill it will be. The price paid for visiting politicians and national attention.
Hey, with fame comes a price! I think it is great that both parties finally paid some attention to the voters of Virginia 🙂
Well I hope you are willing to lose a few libraries for the attention.
I think this rally should be paid for out of Stewart’s and Stirrup’s “discretionary” funds! After all, I bet it is their shenanigans over the last year that drove the decision to have the final Democratic rally here!
From a larger perspective I would think that Manassas was chosen for historical reasons. They state the function is in Manassas not PWC.
For cryin’ out loud our “national” reputation is a legend in our own minds. And do you really want to make those fools think they are larger than they are?
Sounds to me like Prince William County pays and ‘Manassas’ gets the spotlight. Hell of a deal, for Manassas City.
We were probably chosen because we are just across Bull Run, can look all ‘heartland’ and buccolic and still be in spitting distance of DC and major airports.
Perception becomes reality. Stirrup and Stewart are not that important and do not have national status.
I heard on the news this morning that the Obama campaign is paying part of the fees for the big bash in Chicago and one other place. I think both the McCain and Obama campaigns can pitch in and help pay for all the extra first responder costs. They want our votes and we get to pay for it. What’s wrong with this picture. Send them a bill.
MH – so you think we are considered part of the “real” Virginia? We are outside the Beltway and if you are in Montana, it all melts aways after that!!
Seriously, though if I were Obama, I would get a kick out of a final tour in Manassas. The guy is human.
That’s troublesome. Why do we have to foot the bill? The Obama campaign is rolling in money, why don’t they pay for it?
My comment was all in jest. But really, I can’t believe Greg isn’t spinning it that the Obama “operatives” (Eric and Anabel) are responsible for orchestrating the final campaign stop in Manassas. According to him, they are operatives, not Obama supporters or volunteers. I expect that soon an e-mail from Eric to Obama (or vice versal) will appear on the dark screen “proving” that the 9500 Liberty crew has been working for Obama all along and this is their final triumph!
This is at least the 4th time part of both tickets have been here (Obama 2x, McCain and Biden once each) and all infrastructure bills have been paid for by the County.
While it is great that our area is being courted so much and the attention is nice, the bill for the rally tonight will exceed $100,000. All paid for by taxpayers, not one of the campaigns has offered up anything for any of their visits.
$100,000? Really? Where’d that number come from?
Figure a crowd anywhere from 30,000 to 45,000 (Nissan, which holds 30,000 was deemed “too small”) so with that amount of people, you will need approximately 200 police officers (based upon ratios used at Nissan for security) and at least 3/4 medic units.
The websites say that Sen. Obama will speak at 9 or so, but there will be speakers prior to his appearance. That makes it at least a 10 hour plus day for the security personnel.
Next take the avg. hourly compensation of police and fire (and that information is available from the County) and multiply it by 10 hours by 200 officers and 20 or so Fire/Rescue employees and you get a salary figure – and that figure does not include any of those earning overtime. Also, if they are there that long, you have feed those 220 or so people because they can’t leave. How many vehicles do you think it takes to transport 220 people? If anyone goes tomorrow night notice how many police/fire vehicles are there. They don’t run on air.
Just the salary figure alone is in excess of $100,000. All to be borne by those agencies that provide employees.
Juturna. Yes. Real Virginny. The Fairgrounds. What else can I say. Yeeee Haw.
Lucky Duck,
Unless the police and rescue personal are making an average of $45/hr – which would be $95,000 per year – your numbers just don’t add up.
A Barack volunteer just came to my door and gave me a flyer. This is what the flyer says: Tickets are not required but an RSVP is strongly encouraged. To RSVP go to the website VA.BARACKOBAMA.com
For security reasons do not bring bags, chairs, or umbrellas. No signs or banners allowed.
Will I become holier just by having “the one” so close?
For a dose of “holier than thou” you need Church Lady Palin who can tell you if you are “proiAmerica,” or not, if you are socialist or terrorist or (gasp) believe in the First Ammendment and/or modern science.
Too bad we live in “Communist Country” or else we’d get another visit from the Vapid One, or at lease a curse out from John’s brother.
–According to him, they are operatives, not Obama supporters or volunteers.–
Because he is insane. He calls his newsletter “Front Line.” He thinks he is a soldier in combat here in PWC. Therefore, everyone else is some kind of spy or secret agent.
He really does need his head examined, but I’m repeating myself, aren’t I?
First responder costs? There was a Presidential campaign all over the country. I guess building the Nissan Pavillian was a big mistake as well because first responders are needed when those darn musicians come here to play concerts and such.
But you know, if 40,000 people really do come here and half of the stop for dinner, that’s one heck of a “Save The Economy” party, you betcha!
We could pay for the senior day care center with what it has cost to have the big 4 here. Didn’t McCain’s mother blow through here also? So what happens if we send them a bill?
Twinad, I think I follow you. Eric and Annabel are secret operatives for Obama! They have lured him here to bankrupt the county so that the all-hallowed Resolution is devoured by the cost of financing the last big Obama rally. He will introduce them on the stage out there at the Fairgrounds as the ones! Immediately the Gainesville FOIA Queen will start requesting all the records of the entire Obama campaign. Naturally PWC will bear much of the cost here.
Juturna, we are probably in REAL Virginia because of the fairgrounds it doesn’t get any more real than that joint.
Nissan pays for its own security.
Slow, I think you should probably plan on going.–just in case. Every little bit helps.
Gurdoolu, math works out just find if you throw in meals and gasoline and overtime.
We don’t pay our cops slave wages.
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NGL,
You are exactly right. When I went to the Leesburg Rally, I couldn’t get into a bunch of restaurants (chains) before we waited around on one. The whole restaurant was filled with Obama supporters (as evidenced by tshirts, buttons, conversation), and it is likely all the others in the area were, too.
From my knowledge in contracting security services for my building 100,000 U.S. Dollars is a bargain for that type of event. I would say that the actual amount would be far more than 100,000 dollars. Many have to realize, what it actually costs the taxpayers is not what is actually spent in paying the actual workers at these events. Depending on the type of company contracted there is usually a premium on top of that. I would highly agree with Mr/Mrs. Lucky Duck’s figures as they are probably near to the mark. I would of course suggest that the candidates cover these costs from their own rather large coffers of funds than having the local taxpayers fund them. It is far more useful to fund a new round of books for the library, new portable units for schools or even fund a new teacher for a year than to throw a party for a political figure. I would hope that Mr. Obama would agree on this issue. If he does not, then I dont think he would be a proper candidate to vote for assuming that I was actually eligible to vote in the United States.
Gurduloo -while this event is going on PWC still needs officers to respond to calls for services and patroling PWC. The regularly scheduled officers will be working their regular rate the offices assigned to this event will be paid overtime. That accounts for the higher rate.
James, It is all 4 of the major candidates. Let’s not hang this bill soley on Obama. Both the Obama and the McCain campaigns need to chip in and help pay us back. Things are real tight already.
I am sure we aren’t the only jurisdiction who is strapped also.
I am hoping county officials will announce some sort of jurisdictional reimbursement.
General:
The real pisser in all of this is the Manassas gets the name recognition and doesn’t have to pony up a dime.
Pinko i sure hope you have private security. Old corey and greg ain’t gonna like this.
You be in the bayou for that where i from.
Yeah, well…..I don’t really have anything to say about that, Picay except they’d be pretty dumb! (Wait…I should worry. They ARE dumb!)
All four of the Major candidates? Did Palin come to Prince William County? If so I must have been out of town and missed that one. If not then the numbers stand at:
Obama/Biden = 3 trips at tax payer expense
McCain=1 trip at tax payer expense
When Prince William County is facing unprecedented cuts in service because of it’s financial situation it is astonishing that we are expected to continue to pay for repeated trips here by political candidates. I thought at first I would be okay with giving each of them 1 appearance in the county with out fussing about the money, but the more I think about it nope they have money to pay advisors, TV and radio ads and signs, signs all kinds of signs, they should have the money to pay back the localities that they put the strain on financially.
Sorry I give up. I do not believe Palin was here. She was in Leesburg. She was in Fredericksburg. She was in Fairfax. She left us out. The other jurisdictions can bill the McCain campaign.
How foolish of me to miss that one.
The bottom line is, there is nothing you can do about it. And perhaps they will offer to help with expenses. You aren’t willing to be bi-partisan on this, I take it?
Moon-howler,
Well now we should feel left out that Palin didnt make it to the great Prince William County. Oh well may in another 4 years she will make it here. I really didn’t know for sure because I was not around much the last couple of months.
It would be nice if they offer to help off set our expense or maybe Corey can send each of the campaigns a bill and see if they pay it out of the kindness of their harts…hahahahaha
Why am I not being bi-partisan on this one? Bill everyone no matter what party they are with. Never hurts to ask. What is the worse that would happen they get offended and decide not to come back?
It’s been a long day and maybe I am a little cranky.
I am really excited that Obama chose Manassas as his last stop on the campaign trail. It has been great to have the candidates in the Manassas/Prince William area and Northern Virginia for that matter. When has anyone ever thought we were important enough to visit? Not in my lifetime. I am even more excited because I can walk to the fair grounds to hear Obama’s last campaign speech.
Moon-Howler,
I think Manassas will be helping with the event.
Marie, I am just being grumpy. I, too, think it is exciting to have this many candidates around. I give up, I am being crabby also.
It just seems like so much money when we are fighting for every nickel and dime and we closed down the senior citizen center on the western end. Those people stories really got to me and I think the county was dead wrong. It would have cost us all pennies to keep it open.
Question: are other places around the country also having budget crises due to campaign visits, or is this yet another ignominious distinction for Prince William County? Maybe it’s time for a thread about some of the GOOD things that set us apart from our neighbors.
I expect it is a shared concern, ShellyB. Times are tough all over.
I think there SHOULD be some kind of ordinance that parties have to pay for their own cops. Businesses do, and parties are businesses.
This election represents a changing of the guard; not a price tag to bemoan.
Never in my lifetime has a changing of the guard been so eagerly awaited nor so desperately needed for this country. As calamitous as Bush/Cheney foreign policy has been, their domestic policy has been even more tragic. Thus to my surprise and I expect to the surprise of most, it is not national security issues that dominate our thoughts as we make this choice, but economic ones.
I submit that, to most Americans, tomorrow’s historic election (and the campaign stops that go with it) do not represent an economic burden. It is not the restaurant patrons that will give our local economy a lift; it is the lift to our spirits, and the boost to consumer confidence that a new President will bring. For Prince William County and the Commonwealth of Virginia, we will also be buoyed by the civic pride that comes with knowing that we played a pivotal role in choosing the path we take as a nation.
What’s different about Prince William County? In the framework of this election, only this: we have been agonizing over economic concerns (and the ways in which bad decisions by our elected officials can damage an economy) much longer than the rest of the country, ever since the ill-fated “Immigration Resolution” began to impact our local businesses, our real estate market, our tax revenue, and the ability of our local government to function.
While this makes us prone to pinch pennies and scrutinize expenses, it also makes us more keenly aware of how crucial it is that we elect a President who understands the rapidly shifting modernization and globalization of the nation’s economy, and a President who makes wise, deliberative, and practical decisions. In this respect, the economic difficulties we have faced … both on a national level and even more frustratingly on a local level … have opened our eyes, and, in the case of this stubborn but realistic Conservative, it has pried a stubborn and less realistic Conservative from my heart just enough to put “country first,” and vote for the future, rather than voting for the past.
Other jurisdictions are having problems too. I read where one small Ohio town was struggling after the candidates visited several times.
Gurduloo…the numbers DO add up. You hit the average right on the mark. Sorry, but I did my research and have the figures to support what I wrote. $100,000 is the low end of the salary cost.
PS, Moon-Howler, you are correct, Nissan pays the off duty police out of it’s own pocket. They pay no less than $35 per hour per officer and at many concerts, it goes as high as $50 per hour per officer because of the size of the crowd.
I agree with Alanna, Obama has got tons of cash, why doesn’t he pay? Instead the bill goes to the tax payers while he continues to rake in tons of cash.
Or why not get Dem. auxillary cops to volunteer?
Also, I talked a while back about the Obama campaign banning two local news stations from any future interviews because they asked questions Obama and his yes man Biden didn’t like. Now they have kicked three major news papers off of the campaign trail. Why you ask? Because their news papers endorsed McCain. Does nobody care about this obvious manipulation of the media, does it not scare anyone that if you don’t LOVE Obama and Biden your going to be investigated, banned or kicked out? I don’t think Obama is a communist but can’t you see why people sometimes ask?
Congress has held a democratic majority for 2 years now, what have they done? They successfully earned a single digit approval rating, S-I-N-G-L-E D-I-G-I-T. Now we are on the verge of a democratic super-majority and a democrat for president, god help us all…
Here is a link of how Obama is going to generate new jobs in the U.S…. by bankrupting an industry? If you bankrupt the coal industry, which by the way generate 49% of all of our power, what do you think is going to happen to all of those jobs? What do you think is going to happen to your electric bill?
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/11/02/audio-obama-will-bankrupt-the-coal-industry/
Hello, hello.
Desperate much?
Yes. I think very much.
You are so funny!
Do you really believe the spin you’re fed on Fixed News or do you just throw it up here hoping we’ll believe it? There are no newspapers “kicked off the campaign trail.” Are you truly that dumb? Truly? As a courtesy, newspapers are afforded seats on the planes or “Not-so-straight Talk Express” buses that the candidates travel in. There are oodles of journalists who cover the campaigns without such a privilege. If you have ever seen the press risers at an Obama event, there are more journalists there than COULD EVER FIT ON A PLANE!
So what happens when a minor newspaper who hasn’t been covering the campaign for very long loses a seat on the jet to a major network that has been covering the campaign from the beginning? Do they quit and go home? No. They find their own way to the events. So here you are, armed with YET ANOTHER half hour dose of propaganda courtesy of Fixed News and you think you’re going to fool the readers of this blog with another irrelevant false outrage????
You are too funny.
The three minor newspapers that lost their seats to major networks are the types of newspapers that WOULD endorse Palin/McCain. Only the small newspapers are ideologically stunted enough not to support Palin/McCain in spite of the despicable and small-minded campaign they have run, which is only a hair more despicable and small-minded than their policy ideas.
i’m not sure if I’m following correctly but some people here are advocating that the spending of money here is well spend because it’s their candidate that’s being funded. However If my reading of this blog is correct there are other things such as the county resolution that are not ok to be funded? I’m supposing that certain things are correct and certain things are not based on who is doing the speaking? That sound very subjective to me. Even though I’m not able to vote, I am a bit put off by Mr. Obama’s proselyting on T.V. about as much as I am Mr. McCain. I would have been extremely scared to have Mr. Obama as a Candidate for public office in my Native Land. It’s also disturbing to read whyherewhynow’s remarks that essentially say since Mr. Obama is THE candidate it’s Ok to fund him with taxpayer money. You cannot predict the future but you can predict the now. I dont think it is fiscally responsible to support a candidate for public office with money from taxpayer rolls, no matter what the candidate is or what he supports. This is a very odd country indeed in that people cannot make up their minds on what they want or who they want to provide it for them. Honestly this seems a country of complainers. This is just my humble observation, no offense is intended.
My personal opinion is that mr. obama is frightening and he really has not explained how he is going to do things, just that he is going to do them (From my research, they all seem to say the same thing). Mr. McCain is really more of the same with what we have already with Mr. Bush. From the Outside looking in, I think Mr. Obama would be a mighty terrifying choice as some of his policies and procedures lean toward communism.