Mesa State College political science student Ashley Mates has better than a front-row seat at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week.

Mates, who hails from Loveland, is a page for Pat Waak, chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party, a position that puts her up front and just a tiny bit to the side from beginning to end of the daily events.

During the most electric moments of the convention, Mates said, “I can see the chills on people’s necks.”

As a page for the Colorado delegation, Mates does everything a delegate would, except vote.

Mates, 21, also is in charge of a bit of stage management. On Monday night, she was responsible for issuing “Kennedy” signs to delegates and for making sure that none could be seen until Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., was on the stage.

One of the surprises for Mates was the level to which events are planned.

“It’s such a show,” she said of the convention.

She also was struck by the level to which the party has gone to harken back to Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech as Democrats prepare to nominate Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for the presidency.

Jesse Jackson Jr. drew parallels between the mountain peaks visible from Denver and the mountaintops in King’s speech, Mates said.

Mates has taken advantage of every opportunity, she said, right down to calling her “super Republican” father from the convention floor to say, “Guess where I am now?”

She was a bit dazzled, Mates said, when she ran into CNN broadcaster Wolf Blitzer on the convention floor, and a bit flustered when she recognized a convention whip, Kal Penn, from his movies, “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” and “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo.” Penn played Kumar.

Mates wasn’t flustered at all, though, on Monday when a delegate booed former Republican Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa as Leach addressed the Democrats.

“I was so mad at him,” Mates said of the heckler, whom she told to pipe down. “He looked really embarrassed.”

Mates had tried to be an Obama delegate to the convention, but fell short in the voting. A few days later, she got a call from Waak asking if she’d like to be a page, and she promptly accepted.

In no small part, she credits Mesa State for the opportunity, Mates said.

The other Colorado page is a student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where Mates could have attended.

“But I would not have had the chance at CU to do something like this,” she said.

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E-mail Gary Harmon at gary.harmon@gjsentinel.com.