The Cavalry Arrives: High Demand for Tickets to Palin & Sodrel Victory Rally in Jeff

Back during the summer, Sarah Palin invited some Congressional candidates to meet with her in Alaska during their trip to ANWR. Mike Sodrel was among those candidates, and invited Governor Palin to come to southern Indiana sometime to return the favor of hospitality.

Little did he know that Sarah Palin would become the Republican vice presidential nominee, and she would visit Indiana with less than a week to go before the election. And yet here comes Sarah Palin, leading the proverbial cavalry.

The rally being put on by the staff from the McCain-Palin and Sodrel campaigns will be the largest yet seen in southern Indiana for either political party. It will certainly dwarf the couple of hundred people that turned out to see Joe Biden, the Democratic vice presidential pick, when he visited Jeffersonville last month. During that event, Baron Hill ran and hid.

(Read more after the leap)

Harrison County went through 700 tickets in one day (I deliberately held back about 300 for the second day; they’ll be gone by tomorrow afternoon, I suspect, if Monday’s demand was any indication). That’s more people in one county alone than turned out to see Joe Biden.

In Clark County, lines jammed the headquarters and parking around the building was difficult to find. I have had reports of similar scenes from the other ticket distribution centers across the 9th District.

It’s hard to say that this rally–where thousands will pack a building to campaign against the very candidate Baron Hill hitched himself to with his unpopular endorsement in the spring–won’t have a significant impact on the outcome on election day.

Ever since his stand-alone campaign in 2002 highlighted the unexpected vulnerability (at least to national observers) of Baron Hill, Mike Sodrel has always received help from national Republican organizations.

This time, the RNC is consumed with a presidential campaign and the NRCC is broke. But things always seem to work out for Mike Sodrel. Even as the national organizations cannot spend money to defend Mike Sodrel, fate has conspired to make southern Indiana important for the national campaign.

The visit by Sarah Palin will probably generate more earned media, motivate more volunteers, and generate more positive energy (to say nothing of highlighting the Obama-Baron linkage that much more) than anything Sodrel could manage even by spending loads of his own money.

Mike Sodrel’s grassroots organization is probably stronger than it has ever been, even if his fundraising numbers have lagged behind those of Baron Hill. Democrats are more upset with Baron than they have ever been. The Palin visit is only going to strengthen that, and will help to surge turnout and motivate efforts for the final week.

Mike Sodrel’s visit to ANWR was good politics at the time. It was better still for what it means for Sarah Palin’s visit to the 9th District.

Who knew that caribou made for good cavalry?

UPDATE: The demand for tickets has been high enough that they are now allowing people to print them online, rather than have to go to the distribution centers. Harrison County has only a handful of tickets left.