Hang Right Politics

Posted by COgirl on June 5th, 2007 in Democrats

This time it’s the committee raising funds for the Democratic national convention to be held in Denver in 2008.

Denver misses first fundraising deadline for ‘08 convention

The goal was to have raised $7.5 million but only $5.5 million is in the bank right now.

“We basically have the pledges, but they’re not going to be in by the deadline,” Elbra Wedgeworth, president of the host committee, said last week.

Wedgeworth did not immediately return a call to The Associated Press on Monday.

“We are hopeful that the host committee will continue making good fundraising progress and meet their commitments,” said DNC spokeswoman Jenni Engebretsen, in a statement released last week.

Somehow I suspect that the unions are behind the fundraising shortfall and here’s why. You may recall that the unions were upset with Democratic Governor Bill Ritter because he vetoed legislation that would have eliminated secret ballots for organization votes, threatening to “pull” the convention from Denver in retaliation. Unions are also upset because the convention would be held in the Pepsi Center, a non-union facility. Because Colorado has few Fortune 500 companies in the state, the committee has had to look to out of state companies to make pledges, perhaps where the unions have more influence.

If the host committee doesn’t meet its financial goals, would the DNC pull the convention from Denver? Truthfully, I could care less. The thought of thousands of Democratic politicians roaming the streets of my state terrifies me. I think it would be a good time to take vacation, quite frankly. But this puts Howie Dean in a tough spot. Clearly Colorado is one of the states he’s targeting and some here might not look too favorably on this.