Washington » Tyrel Fitzpatrick yearned to score a pair of the highly coveted tickets to the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.
But not because he voted for the Democrat. He didn't.
And not because of the historic nature of Obama's presidency, though he respects it greatly.
Fitzpatrick, a Brigham Young University student who campaigned for Republican Mitt Romney, had a much more personal motive: He wanted to impress a girl.
"It sounds like a great date," he said after learning he lucked out and was awarded the last two tickets in Rep.-elect Jason Chaffetz's possession. "I'm going with a girlfriend who actually campaigned for Obama in Utah."
Fitzpatrick was one of thousands of Utahns who e-mailed and called, pleaded and cajoled for the limited number of free tickets distributed by Utah's senators and representatives.
The Presidential Inauguration Committee gave each senator 368 tickets and each member of the House 196, leaving these politicians to make the tough choices of who gets to go and who doesn't.
In all, 240,000 people will gain access to the ticketed area around the Capitol to see Obama take the oath of office Jan. 20, becoming the nation's first black president.
And that will be only a fraction of the crowd.
Washington officials and law-enforcement leaders expect more than 1.2 million people to swarm the free viewing areas on the National Mall, which would be the largest crowd ever assembled here.
"The enthusiasm is remarkable," said Utah Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson.
For the two inaugurations of President George W. Bush, Matheson had more tickets than he had takers, so he sent the leftovers to Utah's senators. But this year, he received seven times as many requests as he has tickets, leaving him the unpleasant task of disappointing more people than he could please.
For starters, Matheson set aside some for Democratic leaders in Utah, such as Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon and Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker.
"Other than that, you just do it randomly, because what else do you do?" he said.
His office created a lottery-style drawing, which produced a random number that corresponded to a name on a spreadsheet.
Chaffetz, who will take office Jan. 6, has received more than 400 requests -- not all of them from Utahns. His inbox has been flooded with e-mails from New York to Hawaii, hoping that a Republican from an overwhelmingly GOP state might be able to help them out.
Most of his tickets went to people living in his district, but Chaffetz did give two passes apiece to two Harvard graduate students he met during an orientation for new members of Congress. He also sent a few other tickets to Massachusetts residents, including his half-brother John Dukakis. Chaffetz's father was married to Kitty Dukakis, wife of former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, before marrying Chaffetz's mother. For the tickets going to Utahns, Chaffetz gave preference to those who asked early and those requesting a small number of passes.
Chaffetz and Matheson made sure to set aside tickets for France Davis, pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church, Utah's largest predominantly black church.
"We are going to be witnesses," Davis said. "Our folks are thrilled to be able to be there."
Davis will lead a group of 18 church members to Washington, while the rest of his congregation will gather in Salt Lake City for what he is calling "a prayerfest for the president and his staff" where they can watch Obama be sworn in and hear his speech.
Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, distributed his tickets in a variety of ways. Some went to elected officials, others to educators and law-enforcement personnel. A stack went to those who asked early and the rest were divvied by a lottery.
Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett gave their tickets on a first-come, first-serve basis, though they put some aside to give to family, friends and staff.
Hatch's office received requests for 2,000 tickets, an amount he said was "on par" with past inaugurations, which he called "a visible reminder that the founding principles outlined in the Constitution transcend any one person or political party."
And this year, any one race.
"With the swearing-in of the first African-American president," Hatch said, "it is a time to recognize just how far we have come as a country."
