Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., will officially announce his endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama at a campaign rally at AU today.
The rally, which will be held in Bender Arena, is scheduled to begin at 12:15 p.m. Doors will open at 10:30 a.m., according to a press advisory released by the Obama campaign.
The rally is completely free and open to the public, according to Heidi Davis, media and communications director of the AU chapter of Students for Barack Obama.
Caroline Kennedy, daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, will also appear at the rally. She endorsed Obama in an opinion piece in yesterday's edition of The New York Times. In the editorial, she said Obama would offer the same change in leadership that her father offered as a candidate in the 1960 presidential election.
"[Obama] has built a movement that is changing the face of politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people," Caroline Kennedy said in the piece.
An event page on the Obama campaign Web site indicates people can R.S.V.P. for an online ticket to the rally. However, doing this will not guarantee anyone admittance to the event and will not give anyone an edge on getting in, Davis said.
"It gives the campaign a rough idea of how many people we can expect at the event so we can set up the venue to accommodate everyone," she said.
Obama's campaign got a good response from a Sept. 18 rally held at the site of D.C.'s old convention center. The campaign had already planned to campaign in Virginia today but wanted to add a D.C. rally, Davis said.
The campaign contacted Kennedy Political Union Director Amanda Fulton with the request to hold the rally. Fulton said she passed the request on to Student Activities Director Karen Gerlach and Assistant Special Events Director Lisa Arakaki.
Gerlach and Arakaki referred the campaign on to AU Athletics Facilities Director Jordan Tobin. Tobin helped arrange for them to rent out Bender Arena, Gerlach said.
They decided to hold the rally at AU because they wanted the rally to be held at a school, and Bender Arena is the second-largest indoor public venue in D.C. - Verizon Center being the largest, Davis said.
Bender Arena has a full capacity of approximately 5,000, according to Acting AU Media Relations Director Maralee Csellar.
The campaign is renting Bender out for the rally and is providing most logistical support for the event. Neither AU nor KPU are sponsoring or endorsing the event because section 501(c)3 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code prohibits non-profit organizations from conducting political campaign activities. However, they are providing some minimal logistical support outside the event to keep the rest of the university running smoothly, Csellar said.
AU also posted an announcement about the event on their Web site and sent out a Today@AU e-mail as a public service to alert the campus community to the anticipated crowds around Bender Arena.
