ABQNews

DENVER - Here they come.

While New Mexico has only 38 delegates to this week's Democratic National Convention, our state's presence at the four-day event which kicked off Monday is about to get a whole lot bigger.

State Democratic Party chair Brian Colon said Tuesday that about 600 other New Mexicans are expected to begin pouring into Denver to attend Thursday's marquee event at Invesco Field at Mile High, when Barack Obama will take the stage in front of an expected crowd of 75,000 to accept the party's presidential nomination.

 "Starting today, you will see an amazing influx of New Mexicans," Colon said during Tuesday's delegate breakfast.

Here are a few more tidbits from Day Two at the convention: 

* While Democrats are obviously the stars of the political show this week in the Mile High City (the Republicans get their turn next week with their own convention in St. Paul, Minn.), the GOP is working hard here to toss a wet blanket on the Dems in-party lovefest.

The Republicans are churning out a barrage of anti-Dem news releases and have even taken to the Mile High skies: Outside the hotel where the New Mexico Dems are staying, I looked up this morning and saw a small plane chugging along over Downtown toting a big banner that said, "BIDEN IS RIGHT -OBAMA NOT READY." 

 * New Mexico delegates this morning all scored free bottles of specially packaged "Red Hot Dems" salsa from the Albuquerque Tortilla Co. 

A quote from the label: "Warning: Consumption may be dangerous to Republicans as it could lead to uncontrolled peace and balanced budgets."  

Spicy.

* The floor area of the Pepsi Center, where all the major speechifying is taking place, was crazy with people during Monday night's major speeches by Sen. Edward Kennedy and Michelle Obama. So crazy, in fact, that the fire marshal at one point closed it down to any additional observers - including Journal photog Jim Thompson, who was none too happy about being left on the sidelines while Michelle Obama gave her headliner address.

 *Meanwhile, hundreds of reporters chose to cover the event from a large filing center in a separate room at the Pepsi Center rather than from the arena proper (no Internet access inside the arena itself, unless you're willing to shell out hundreds of bucks).

Sorta weird: Many of these reporters traveled hundreds or thousands of miles to catch the big show - only to catch most of it from closed-circuit TVs inside the press center. 

 * One  Obama backer making the rounds in Denver this week is trying to corral support from sportsmen - and he acknowledges he's facing an uphill battle.

Tod Sedgwick, a member of Obama's national finance committee and an avid hunter, told the Journal this week there are plans to form "sportsmen for Obama" groups in every state including New Mexico.

Sedgwick said that Obama's image isn't that of a hunter, adding he doesn't expect to see the candidate dress up in hunting duds and grab a shotgun in hopes of scoring some more votes.

But Sedgwick said he believes Obama's stance on conservation issues will appeal to hunters interested in improved habitat. And he insisted Obama's voting record on 2nd Amendment issues tracks closely with John McCain's record.

"The NRA is going to come out and try to arue Obama is going to take away your guns. Nothing could be farther from the truth," Sedgwick said. "He has said specifically: the 2nd Amednment applies to individuals."

That said, "I won't argue with anybody that this is an uphill battle," Sedgwick said of his efforts. "But it's something we need to turn around." 

 * To close today's blog installment, I shall try to entertain you with a feature I'll call "Dumb things the Political Animal has done due (I think) to an utter lack of sleep." 

1. On Monday night, I spent a full, frantic hour trying repeatedly - but in vain - to get a wireless connection inside the press filing center inside the Pepsi Center.

While other reporters, hundreds of 'em, worked calmly and efficiently around me, I seethed at my computer, turned it off and on several times, bugged the Journal's computer guru incessantly and fantasized about slicing my HP into very small pieces.

 I was a few minutes away from a full-on rage aneurysm when a nice lady at the help desk politely told me there WASN'T any wireless connection inside the press room. There were, instead, phone lines for computer connections underneath the tables.

Brilliant!

* This morning, after a refreshing 4-hour sleep and a one-hour drive from our DNC-assigned hotel in what seems like Kansas back to Downtown Denver, I realized I'd left my cell phone inside the Journal truck in a Downtown parking lot.

I went back to get it. That's where my reporter's instict for keen observation kicked in: I noticed that I'd left the front passenger window of the Explorer - chock full of goodies like my cell phone - rolled completely down for at least 90 minutes.

 The phone was right there where I left it on the console. 

Brilliant!

If you have  any questions or comments, feel free to drop a line to the Political Animal at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it