Pssst! Need convention party tix?

The political strategists at the Glover Park Group were a little baffled when their phones started ringing with people who all wanted tickets for the party they were hosting at the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

In the weeks leading up to the convention, such a request is pretty routine. Finding tickets to the hottest private parties is the biggest game in town. But the Glover Park partners, who include President Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart and Al Gore top strategist Carter Eskew, aren’t having a party this year at the convention.

A reception in the company’s name was mistakenly listed on the convention host committee’s master calendar, for 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Anthem, a restaurant decorated with lush velour and beaded curtains that describes itself as “a needed alternative to the area’s sports bars and after-work watering holes.”

The mix-up is just one sample of how frenzied the ticket game has become. Lobbyists, congressional staff and other convention-goers are so eager to get into big-name events in Boston next week that they’re calling and e-mailing each other to trade and cajole invitations.

“There’s lots of begging and pleading,” said Andy Dotson, a Washington lobbyist for the National Beer Wholesalers Assn. “It’s such a crazy time right now. The e-mails are coming fast and furious.”

Since most parties are sponsored by corporations, their lobbyists often end up with extra tickets that they can swap for others. Also useful as barter: credentials to the convention itself.

“It’s like trading baseball cards,” said Jeff Murray, a lobbyist who is helping plan a party for the Blue Dog Democrats, a coalition of moderate and conservative Democrats whose bash at the 2000 convention in Los Angeles was held at the Santa Monica Pier. They invited 2,000 people; 3,000 showed up.

About 30 corporate sponsors are footing the bill for the $600,000 Blue Dog bash in Boston, among them Microsoft, Pepsico, Home Depot, Metlife, ConocoPhillips, Altria and Comcast. Because the party features the Neville Brothers, it has become one of the hot tickets at the convention.

For many people, the most sought-after party invites are those headlined by big-name performers or Hollywood celebrities.

For others, the premier events are those at which presidential nominee John F. Kerry -- or Clinton -- might show up.

And then there are those hankering for anything involving Fenway Park.

“It’s a boy thing,” said Dennis Fitzgibbons, director of public policy for DaimlerChrysler Corp.

Several events are planned at the famed baseball park, including a $5,000-a-couple fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee at the Yankee-Red Sox game Sunday night. On Tuesday afternoon, select invitees can take to the field and swing a bat or two -- an event organized by 39 sponsors, including the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Microsoft and the American Gas Assn.

Two toughest tickets

Laura Raposa, a gossip columnist for the Boston Herald, said the hottest tickets in town revolve around two events. The sold-out Creative Coalition party on Wednesday night features the Red Hot Chili Peppers as well as a long list of celebrities, including Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, William Baldwin, Billy Crystal, Bianca Jagger, Montel Williams and Alfre Woodard. And on Tuesday night, the Democrats’ tribute to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy at Symphony Hall will have the Boston Pops and Bono, with Glenn Close as emcee.

“I hear one of our tickets merits five to another,” said Robin Bronk, executive director of the Creative Coalition. She has been fielding 100 ticket requests a day.

For a while, people were scrambling to find tickets to a party for Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.) after various news outlets, including Newsweek, reported that Justin Timberlake would perform. But Timberlake declined the invitation. In his place: rapper Doug E. Fresh, who can imitate drum machines and other musical effects. That party invite is apparently not so hot anymore.

Convention pros say the first step toward collecting tickets is amassing the lists of events. The master list runs more than 15 pages -- mostly parties and receptions organized by the host committee, corporate sponsors, the Democratic National Committee, the congressional and senatorial campaign committees and other Democratic groups.

One big-time lobbyist in Washington, who did not want his name or firm identified, said parlaying access at the convention must begin months earlier. (A colleague said the lobbyist had the ticket trade down to an “art form.”)

The way it works, the lobbyist said, is this: You travel to the convention city and befriend the convention and political party staff several months in advance, wining and dining them and making their life a little easier since most are living away from home. You might make several return trips. Then when the staff is especially frazzled in the days before the convention begins, you send up pizza for the ever-grateful workers.

In return, convention and party workers will reward you with tickets and credentials. Raising money also merits access to credentials and invites.

“The real thing you want to do is have as many tickets to as many events as you can to barter,” the lobbyist said. “A couple have to be premier signature events. If you get a block of those, you can trade 2-for-4 on them.”

He said he got a request on Thursday for 12 tickets to a Monday night party featuring the Goo Goo Dolls. Every Democratic member of the Senate was invited.

Unless you know Ted ...

One ticket that is almost impossible to get now: a private clambake at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, an event organized for top Kerry fundraisers and those close to the Kennedy clan.

“You can’t trade for that,” said veteran Washington lobbyist Tony Podesta. The event is tightly controlled to those on the invitation list.

On his list of hot parties: events at the Kennedy Library. “Everyone wants to go there. So those are high-prestige events.”

Eileen McCaughey, the director of political and strategic operations for BellSouth in Washington, had collected about 200 tickets to about 10 events by late last week.

“I am the keeper of the tickets. Somebody here says ‘I want to get tickets to this. What can we trade that for?’ ”

So she reaches into her pile and hopefully comes up with the right invite that will make her lobbyist happy. “It’s maddening,” she said.

Party sponsors are somewhat competitive about the buzz their bashes are generating.

For instance, Rock the Vote, the nonpartisan organization that aims to register young people, is sponsoring events and concerts daily, culminating Thursday night with a concert at the Roxy with Maroon 5 and LL Cool J.

About 1,600 people are expected to be there, including the Kerry and Heinz adult children.

Frank Coleman of the Distilled Spirits Council said the party his group is throwing Monday night, along with Roll Call, the New Republic and the Economist, also has buzz.

“When I was thinking about this party eight months ago, part of the point was to have a party hot enough to have currency,” he said. And in fact, he said, it does.

He traded tickets to his party for tickets to batting practice at Fenway.

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Times staff writer Robin Abcarian contributed to this report.