ROCHESTER [-] An overflow crowd stretched down the block ouside the Rochester Opera House where Republican presumptive nominee John McCain would take part in a town hall-style forum today.

  McCain’s top Democratic supporter, Jim McConaha of Concord, got a cherished spot in the front row on stage just to McCain’s right.

   The McCain campaign announced McConaha’s support around the time Obama made his return to the state last month with Democratic runner-up Hillary Rodham Clinton.

  Meanwhile, Concord Democratic Rep. Steve Shurtleff, a Vietnam War veteran and leading supporter of Democratic nominee to be Barack Obama, got one of the public tickets and sat in the first row of the Rochester building’s third-row balcony.

   The state’s local media got stashed in the back of the balcony with at best an obstructed view of the event.

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