Denver Locals and Obama supporters Lauren Blair, Lauren Frinkman and Oleta Nelson soak up the scene at the YDA convention kick off party Sunday night. Photograph by Chris Nelson.

So we’re hearing a lot about what the 50,000 activists, delegates, elected officials and journalists who have descended upon the Mile High city this week, but what about the people who, you know, live here?

We ran into a few young locals taking advantage of the convention-enhanced party scene at the Young Democrats of America’s convention kick-off party last night.

Jessica Alder, 23, and Lauren Frinkman, 22, who both work in Colorado state politics, said they feel the convention is facilitating a lot of discussion about issues—both big and small—throughout the city.

“It’s really great to see national-level politics coming to Denver,” Alder added.

Frinkman has faith that the youth vote is going to pull through and make a big difference come November. Why? Because this is an election that people really care about with a candidate like Obama who “offers something different,” she said.

“He offers a perspective outside a typical White House perspective, which seems to be propagating evil,” she said, adding “”I think this election is going to be groundbreaking. It’s going to shatter everything before.”

Not everyone at the party was down to fete Obama. Lauren (a different one than pictures above), a 24-year-old Denver native who works in the finance sector said she was supporting McCain, but not without reservations.

“He’s the lesser of the two, I guess,” she said. “I agree with more of what he supports than I do Obama. It’s a default.”

She said she’s turned off by Obama’s stance on capital gains taxes and his recent shiftiness with his position on energy and other policies. “I can’t trust him,” she said.

Lauren’s friend Lesley, who was out celebrating her 24th birthday, sided with Obama.

Lesley recently moved back to Denver from Arizona, where she taught middle school math. She said she couldn’t support the Arizona senator after seeing the impact of his stance on education policy play out first-hand in her classroom. “Our population of students was very left behind with [the things he supported],” she said.

One thing no one was excited about? The traffic that comes with the massive influx of people and security.

“Working downtown’s going to suck, but it’s cool that it’s come to Denver,” Lauren said.