AUBURN – Democratic caucus organizer Ed Desgrosseilliers said he’s never seen anything like it.

People are anxious to attend Sunday’s caucuses. “It’s the first time I’ve seen people really this enthusiastic about it,” Desgrosseilliers said Thursday. “I’ve had more people who are first-time caucus-goers than ever before.”

Hillary Clinton is scheduled to be at the Lewiston Armory at 65 Central Ave. on Saturday to attend a town hall meeting that begins at 1:30 p.m. Doors at the Armory open at noon, her campaign announced late Thursday. The candidate for the Democratic nomination will be in Orono at 9:30 a.m. and travel to the Lewiston for the afternoon event.

Desgrosseilliers has heard from young voters getting involved for the first time, and from elderly people confined to walkers requesting help to get to the caucus. “I never got that before. The high interest is from the two excellent candidates we have for this office “

With Clinton and Barack Obama campaigning in Maine on Saturday, that will amplify the already-building excitement, said Arden Manning, executive director of the Maine Democratic Party.

The party has collected 5,000 absentee ballots for Sunday’s caucus. “That’s high,” Manning said. “Frankly it was more than we anticipated, which is great. The level of energy and enthusiasm has been invigorating.”

The deadline to file absentee ballots was Wednesday. Until then “the phone rang off the hook.” He’s predicting Sunday’s caucus turnout will be 17,000 or better.

Right now, Maine’s important

While last month both the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns said they weren’t planning to come to Maine, Super Tuesday changed that, creating a too-close-to-call race.

Obama will visit the Bangor Expo. Clinton will appear at the University of Maine in Orono. There’re coming one day before the caucuses for two reasons, said Marv Druker, political science professor and interim dean of the Lewiston-Auburn College.

“At this point they need every vote they can get.”

Maine has 24 delegate votes, 1 percent of what’s needed for a candidate to win the Democratic nomination.

The national media will be following them here.

“Partly it’s the news cycle that goes into Tuesday where there are a number of primaries, Maryland and Virginia,” Druker said. “They’ve got to stay in the media and keep the momentum going.”

Druker said he was a bit surprised by Clinton’s and Obama’s visits. He had wondered “how important was Maine in the process. Nobody coming means we’re not important.”

It appears Maine now is important “for one weekend,” he said.

Obama the underdog

Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe told reporters in a conference call on Thursday that Sunday is an important day. Based on how Clinton has so far performed in the Northeast, “she starts out with advantages,” Plouffe said.

But support has been growing in Maine, he said. “There’s enormous grassroots energy for Obama with over 700 precinct captains to help us on caucus day. We’ve got phone banks, volunteers and staff making phone calls.”

He predicted the contest will be close, but “we think we can do very well there on Sunday,” Plouffe said.

Reid Cherlin, Obama’s campaign communications director for Maine, said Bangor was chosen for a visit because Obama visited Portland in the fall, and now wants to get to a different part of the state. He’s expected to speak for 45 to 60 minutes outlying his core arguments for his candidacy.

Clinton invited Obama to appear with her Saturday so Mainers could hear from both candidates directly, said Clinton spokeswoman Kathleen Strand. That way Mainers would be able to judge for themselves between the two, she said.

That won’t happen, though, Plouffe said. Obama wants to spend his time talking to Mainers. “We will not have our schedule dictated by the Clinton campaign.” There will be more debates, he said.

Clinton is coming to Maine “to continue her conversations with Maine families about her bold solutions” to the country’s problems, Strand said.

Maine has 24 delegates “up for grabs, and in this campaign every delegate is important,” she said. Maine is a priority to Clinton, Strand said. While she is not taking Maine for granted, the campaign has a strong and energized grassroots support. Clinton feels good about Maine, Strand said.

Clinton’s talk on Saturday will be a town meeting style. First she’ll speak, then take questions.

Obama’s campaign has been running radio ads in Maine this week. On Thursday, Clinton started television ads, Strand said.

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