The team promoting Denver's bid to host the 2008 Democratic National Convention went to New Orleans this week at the DNC spring meeting there. You can understand why Chairman Dean chose to hold the spring meetings there, because everyone who went came back reporting that things are much worse in New Orleans than generally reported. Colorado Democratic Party vice chair (and blogger) Dan Slater, part of the Denver 2008 team, spent some time doing relief work in the city with a group of fellow Dems:
This afternoon, Pat, Sherry and I joined about 25 other Dems,
including DNC Vice Chair / ASDC Chair / Michigan Chair Mark Brewer, New
Mexico Chair John Wertheim, and the Executive Directors from Washington
state and New Mexico, to help work on a house that had been flooded by
Katrina. We didn't go to the Lower Ninth Ward -- the area that gets the
most coverage for devastation -- instead, we went to a location only
about five minutes from our hotel by bus (and which was under "only"
eight feet of water for ten days).
Even on the short ride
there, the state of the city was noticably poor. Few businesses were
open, debris still lined the streets, and homes were marked with the
unmistakable orange spray paint of the rescue parties (after searching
a home for survivors or bodies, the rescue workers would mark the
outside of the home with spray paint to indicate who had been there,
when they had been there, and what they had found). The brownish line
of the high-water mark was starkly visible on most of the houses -- up
to about the top of most doors.
. . .
In case you were wondering, this was not simple "photo-op" work. This
was real labor, involving sledge hammers, crowbars, and face masks. I
helped tear down several walls, from the drywall to the interior of the
wall, leaving only the framing up to about the six-foot level (the
house was several feet off of the ground). Sherry and Pat were also
working, taking up sub-flooring and pulling plaster from the walls.
Sherry quite accurately described the work as "back-breaking."
Slater and his team then threw a party to drum up support for a Denver convention in 2008, which was well received. Mike Littwin of the Rocky Mountain News also attended and reported some interesting rumors: 1. The consensus is that Denver is one of the top three candidates, although it is unclear who the other two are -- Littwin mentioned Anaheim and Las Vegas, although I think Minneapolis is definitely in the mix, and 2. If Ray Nagin is re-elected mayor of New Orleans, that city will not be awarded the 2008 convention.
What the spring meeting really shows, though, is that the first question the 2008 convention organizers must answer is whether to hold the convention in New Orleans or somewhere else. Chairman Dean's selection of New Orleans to host the spring meetings highlights the fact that New Orleans needs help right now, hopefully not so much in 2008. "It's worse than you think" seems to be the theme of everyone who visited. That tells me the Republicans aren't going to hold their convention in New Orleans -- Republican delegates aren't going to want to party out in a city that still smells of death or where they will be expected to put in physical labor to help out. So I think we can put to rest any thought of a Rovian choice of New Orleans for political advantage (unless the city makes a miraculous turnaround, which I would hope happens but would seem to eliminate the reason to have the Dem convention there.)
Mike Littwin's column points out a couple of points in Denver's favor, should Denver emerge (as seems likely) as the not-New Orleans favorite to hold the convention. First is the statement the convention would make as evidence of the Dems' new commitment to the Mountain West. Second (and this is related to the first), the Dems' choice for their convention site will come down to whether they want to showcase Republican failures of the past or the Democratic promise of the future.
As a Denverite, I hope Chairman Dean's selection of New Orleans for the spring meeting means he is sending help to New Orleans now, when it is most needed, and will be ready to look forward to the future by selecting Denver as the 2008 convention site. Then, we can hold the 2012 convention in New Orleans to showcase how Democratic leadership brought that city back.
Yet another 2008 convention poll: