Ticket requests swamp Landrieu

• By GERARD SHIELDS
• Advocate Washington bureau
• Published: Nov 18, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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WASHINGTON — With the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama coming up on Jan. 20, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu is being asked to watch it with 12,000 of her closest friends.

That’s how many people have requested tickets from the Louisiana Democrat’s office.

Other delegation members also are receiving requests into the thousands, with each able to satisfy only from 200 to 250 onlookers.

“It’s going to be massive,” Landrieu spokesman Adam Sharp said.

“It breaks our heart to realize many of the people calling are going to be turned away.”

U.S. Sen. David Vitter’s office said it has received 5,000 ticket requests from 1,200 people.

“But we are still in the course of processing hundreds that have come in over Web mail as well as physical mail,” Vitter spokesman Joel DiGrado said.

The office of U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman, stopped taking requests Friday after receiving more than 1,000 requests.

“And this is a Republican office,” said Alexander’s chief of staff, Adam Terry.

“We’re trying to get as many as we can to constituents to use.”

Some members didn’t wait for it to get out of control.

U.S. Rep. Charles “Charlie” Melancon cut off his requests on Wednesday. Melancon limited the number of tickets in a request to two and required that only constituents from his district apply.

“We are also letting everyone know that there are non-ticketed areas of The Mall where they can view the inauguration, albeit from a distance,” Melancon spokeswoman Robin Winchell said.