Obama heading to the Hill City on Wednesday

Barack Obama will bring his presidential campaign for change to Lynchburg in a town hall meeting Wednesday at E.C. Glass High School, his Virginia staffers said Monday.

Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., will join Obama for the event inside the school’s 2,000-capacity gymnasium.

It will be the first appearance by a presumed presidential nominee in Lynchburg since Ronald Reagan in 1980.

John McCain, Obama’s opponent in the presidential race, delivered the commencement address at Liberty University in 2006 when the Republican was in between presidential campaigns.

The Democratic candidate’s Lynchburg headquarters started notifying supporters as soon as the meeting’s plans became definite Monday afternoon, and about 30 people had lined up for tickets at 5 p.m. at the Main Street headquarters.

All the available tickets were given out Monday.

“I got a call,” a smiling Lisa Waller said in describing how she and her friend Anitra Turner managed to be at the front of the line.

Another early arrival, Chris Cohen of Lynchburg, said the prospect of seeing Obama was “pretty exciting.”

“Lynchburg is off the beaten path, and I’m interested in seeing why he’s interested in us,” Cohen said.

Lynchburg City Councilman Mike Gillette said the Hill City could play a key role in Obama’s drive to win Virginia’s electoral votes for a Democrat, which hasn’t happened since 1964.

“Virginia has changed,” Gillette said.

“Obama knows he is going to do well in Northern Virginia and Richmond, and probably in Charlottesville and on the shore,” Gillette said.

“But he probably knows he is not going to do as well deep in Southwest Virginia, and that means our region really is a battleground. He needs to pull votes in our area in Central Virginia to put Virginia in his column,” Gillette said.

Doors to the high school gym will open at 4:30 p.m. and the program is scheduled to begin at 6:35.

Obama is expected to talk about the nation’s economy, his plans for a $1,000 tax cut for middle class families, a goal of 5 million new jobs in renewable energy and a college tuition tax credit.

The candidate will make a campaign stop Wednesday morning in Martinsville before appearing in Lynchburg. His designation as the Democratic Party’s candidate won’t be official until the national convention in Denver formally chooses him next Tuesday.

Gerard Hutcherson, who got his ticket Monday afternoon, said he became an Obama supporter as soon as he announced his candidacy. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity to see him in person,” Hutcherson said.

Jenny Poore, who said she’s an active volunteer among parents at Perrymont Elementary School, also was among the first to claim a ticket Monday.

“I’m excited to see a candidate who actually appears to care about what’s going on in our communities with children and the educational system, and with the economy and the war,” Poore said.

Lynchburg’s other brushes with presidential candidates have been rare.

Mike Huckabee spoke at Liberty University in November, and at Thomas Road Baptist Church in February, when he was running against McCain for the Republican nomination for president.

Both presidents Bush also have passed through Central Virginia.

George H.W. Bush spoke at the Liberty University graduation in 1990, and George W. Bush helped dedicate the D-Day Memorial in Bedford in 2001.

Lynchburg was a fairly significant stop on Reagan’s campaign schedule in October 1980, when an almost iconic photo of him shaking hands with Jerry Falwell appeared on front pages around the country.

That was the year that Moral Majority, promoted by Falwell, was emerging as a national political force. Spokesmen with Moral Majority said they registered millions of new voters nationwide.

Several Republican candidates around the country ousted Democratic incumbents that fall with the support of voters who made family values their cause.

Reagan’s campaign and Obama’s share the registration theme.

Voter registrars in Lynchburg and statewide say the rate of new-voter signups has exceeded the pace of 2004.

Obama and the Democratic Party have opened field offices in small cities, including Lynchburg and Bedford, that haven’t experienced an active presidential campaign in decades.

The effect of those registrations won’t be known until Nov. 4, when those voters get their first chance to show up at the polls.

Lynchburg’s Democratic Party leaders were excited Monday even though the usual local party workers didn’t have a leading role in Obama’s scheduling.

“This is great,” John Lawrence, chairman of the local Democratic Party, said. “To have a presidential candidate come here shows how important Virginia is electorally, plus how much Virginia has shifted away from being a Republican state.”

Mayor Joan Foster described the campaign stop as “interesting times in Lynchburg.”

“We’re on their radar screen. I think that’s newsworthy,” she said. “… It’s been a long time coming, in my opinion.”

Gillette said he thinks Central Virginia has a chance to be part of the political process in which it usually isn’t included.

“We’ll get a sense of what it feels like to live in New Hampshire during the primaries,” Gillette said.

Gillette said he, his wife and daughter put in a few days working for Obama’s campaign in New Hampshire last winter.

“We helped in the office, with canvassing and phone-bank work. It was pretty exciting,” Gillette said.