DNC convention cities on edge
Nation/World // Politico
By, POLITICO
Jan. 22, 2011 Updated: May 2, 2011 2:25 p.m.
The suspense is killing them.
In Washington, where the decision will be made, nobody seems to be in any hurry to reveal where the 2012 Democratic convention will be held. But in the cities competing to host the event, the waiting is the hardest part.
"Still Waiting!" was the subject line of an e-mail that went out to supporters of Charlotte, N.C.'s convention bid on Wednesday.
"Like many of you, we've been eagerly anticipating the Democratic National Committee's decision on the host city for the 2012 convention," Charlotte In 2012's Will Miller wrote. "… We have not heard anything from the DNC, but we expect to know within the next couple weeks."
Meanwhile, in St. Louis, Sen. Claire McCaskill said the long wait is making her anxious.
"I wish I knew," the Missouri Democrat said last week, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I'm worried that I don't, to tell you the truth. Because I would think by now that somebody would have given me some kind of glimmer of what is going to happen."
The DNC originally said it planned to make a decision by the end of 2010, but with a busy lame-duck congressional session giving way to the holiday news doldrums, "late December" became "early January." Now the verdict definitely won't come before or shortly after President Barack Obama's Tuesday State of the Union address, Democratic officials say — probably not until early February.
"These days, I just pick up the phone and say, 'I don't know yet,'" said Mack Bradley, spokesman for St. Louis's convention bid, who constantly fields calls from local reporters on the topic. "I've stopped saying, 'Hello, how's it going.' I just pick up the phone and say, 'I don't know.'"
The four finalist cities for the convention to be held the week of Sept. 3, 2012, are St. Louis, Charlotte, Cleveland and Minneapolis. The nervousness is especially acute for the perceived front-runners, St. Louis and Charlotte.
Stories about the cities' convention chances are on the local news practically nightly, and local happenings are scrutinized for possible bearing on the convention. Last week, when Charlotte's schools angered some parents by having students come to school on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday as a makeup for snow days, the head of the local NAACP urged national groups to boycott the city.
The call by Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP President Kojo Nantambu led to a flurry of hand-wringing about whether the DNC would be turned off by his description of the city as "a racist bastion." After a chorus of dissent by local black leaders — including the city's African-American mayor, Anthony Foxx — Nantambu clarified that he didn't mean to include the DNC in his boycott call.
Seemingly every American city that isn't New York or Los Angeles has a complex about how it's perceived by outsiders. And for the cities in convention contention, there's a lot of civic pride caught up in this very public drama. They're aching for the validation that would come, first, from winning the competition, and second from the chance to showcase their city to the national political and media classes.
"If we were New York or Boston or L.A., I'm not sure this would be that big a deal," said Miller, acting executive director of the Charlotte convention bid. "For this community, we see it as a step up, grabbing the next rung on the ladder."
The hope, he said, is that if the city hosts the convention, it'll no longer be constantly confused with the other "Ch" cities — the Charlestons of South Carolina and West Virginia, and Charlottesville, Virginia. "There's a Cleveland, North Carolina, but nobody thinks of that when you say Cleveland," he said.
There's a delicate balance to be struck, as the cities in question want to make their enthusiasm clear without seeming to pressure the DNC. (Miller compared it to waiting tables.) They understand the time to make a case was last summer, when St. Louis, for example, put on a free concert featuring Chuck Berry and Nelly while the DNC's inspection team was in town.
Now, the resumes are submitted, the job interview is over, and all that remains is to sit by the phone.
On the DNC's end, President Barack Obama and his top political advisers must make the final call on which city makes the best backdrop for his renomination.
The events of this month, from the arrival of the new Congress to the mass shooting in Arizona that killed six and wounded a member of Congress, have not left much down time for contemplating an event more than 18 months in the future.
But ending the torture of waiting for the citizens of Missouri, North Carolina, Minnesota and Ohio isn't the only reason the DNC needs to pull the trigger soon. The clock is ticking for the national party and the host city to begin fundraising, nailing down vendor contracts and planning convention logistics.
The decision could get put on the front burner now that the structure and principals of Obama's reelection effort have been announced. One Democratic insider who has discussed the issue with top DNC figures said, "Nobody is worried. … It's an issue at some point, but I don't think we are anywhere close."
A DNC official said the delay in announcing the convention site would not hurt planning. "Our time frame has always been the end of last year, beginning of this year," the official said. "We remain on track and on schedule for what we need to accomplish."
The official noted the contrast between the DNC's process and the RNC's. Republicans chose Tampa, Fla., for their 2012 convention back in May 2010, saying the early selection — from a field of two that also included Salt Lake City — would give them a head start on fundraising and planning.
Instead, the RNC has been roiled by internal criticism for spending more than $600,000 on convention planning in 2010 with practically nothing to show for it. One of the first housecleaning gestures by new RNC Chairman Reince Priebus was to cancel the convention contracts that critics of former Chairman Michael Steele charged were part of a pattern of cronyism.
Still, one official involved in the Democratic convention stakes noted, the GOP's site selection process seemed awfully drama-free.
"It seems like the Republicans got around a table one day, said, 'Anybody have a problem with Tampa? No?' and that was it," the official said.
Nine months later, four cities are still waiting, on pins and needles, to hear from the Democrats.
Charlotte's Miller looked on the bright side: "Right now, we have hope," he said. "We like hope."
Meanwhile, in St. Louis, Sen. Claire McKaskill said the long wait is making her anxious.
"I wish I knew," the Missouri Democrat said, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I'm worried that I don't, to tell you the truth. Because I would think by now that somebody would have given me some kind of glimmer of what is going to happen."
The DNC originally said it planned to make a decision by the end of 2010, but with a busy lame-duck congressional session giving way to the holiday news doldrums, December became early January. Now the verdict definitely won't come before or shortly after Obama's Tuesday State of the Union address, Democratic officials say —>
"These days, I just pick up the phone and say, 'I don't know yet,'" said Mack Bradley, spokesman for St. Louis's convention bid, who constantly fields calls from local reporters on the topic. "I've stopped saying 'Hello, how's it going.' I just pick up the phone and say, 'I don't know.'"
The four finalist cities for the convention to be held the week of Sept. 3, 2012, are St. Louis, Charlotte, Cleveland and Minneapolis. The nervousness is especially acute for the unofficial front-runners, St. Louis and Charlotte.
Stories about the cities' convention chances are on the local news practically nightly, and seemingly unrelated developments are scrutinized for possible bearing on the convention. Last week, when Charlotte's schools had students come to school on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday as a makeup for snow days, the head of the local NAACP urged national groups to boycott the city.
The call by Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP President Kojo Nantambu cq led to a flurry of hand-wringing about whether the DNC would be turned off by his description of the city as "a racist bastion." After a chorus of dissent by local black leaders — including the city's African-American mayor, Anthony Foxx — Nantambu clarified that he didn't mean to include the DNC in his boycott call.
Seemingly every American city that isn't New York or Los Angeles has a complex about how it's perceived by outsiders. For the cities in convention contention, there's a lot of civic pride caught up in this very public drama. They're aching for the validation that would come, first, from winning the competition, and second from the chance to showcase their city to the national political and media classes.
The hope, he said, is that if the city hosts the convention, it'll no longer be constantly confused with the other "Ch" cities — Charlestons S.C. and W.V., and Charlottesville, Va. "There's a Cleveland, North Carolina, but nobody thinks of that when you say Cleveland," he said.
There's a delicate balance to be struck, as the cities in question want to make their enthusiasm clear without seeming to pressure the DNC. (Miller compared it to waiting tables.) The time to make a case was last summer, when St. Louis, for example, put on a free concert featuring Chuck Berry and Nelly while the DNC's inspection team was in town.
On the DNC's end, President Barack Obama and his top political advisers must make the final call on which city makes the best backdrop for his renomination. It's unclear whether the decision has been made at the highest levels and they're just waiting for the right time to announce it, or if the choice is still up in the air.
The events of this month, from the arrival of the new Congress to the mass shooting in Arizona that killed six and wounded a member of Congress, have not left a lot of down time for contemplating an event more than 18 months in the future.
But ending the torture of waiting for the citizens of Missouri and North Carolina isn't the only reason the DNC needs to pull the trigger soon. The clock is ticking for the national party and the host city to begin fundraising, nailing down vendor contracts and planning convention logistics.
Instead, the RNC has come under criticism for spending more than $600,000 on convention planning in 2010 with practically nothing to show for it. One of the first housecleaning gestures by new RNC Chairman Reince Priebus was to cancel the convention contracts that critics of former Chairman Michael Steele charged were part of a pattern of cronyism.