Monday, October 15, 2012
8:10 AM
Crowd lines up for Ryan's Waukesha event
Hundreds of people are lined up outside the athletic fieldhouse at Carroll University in Waukesha to attend a town hall event featuring VP candidate Paul Ryan.
About 200 Romney-Ryan supporters have filled the bleachers along one side of the gym, serving as a background for the stage. Several hundred folding chairs on the gym floor have nearly filled and event organizers are calling for more chairs.
More than two dozen large posters promoting Alberta Darling for state Senate and Dale Kooyenga for state Assembly line the walls.
Ryan is scheduled to speak at about 8:30 a.m. and to take questions from the audience.
At 8:05 a.m., event organizers called for 200 more chairs, saying that many people were still lined up outside. At least 900 chairs appear to be filled. Organizers say they were expecting about 1,200 people, but believe the crowd will exceed that.
A few flatscreen TVs have been set up to help more of the crowd see the speakers. Right now, the TVs are showing Romney campaign ads, with the audio blasting through speakers in the gym.
An electronic sign portraying the national debt has been set up in the gym, with numbers that change and grow every second. A banner across the podium reads, "We can't afford four more years."
-- By Kay Nolan
For WisPolitics.com
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