Long race puts convention plans in flux

Politico ^ | 6/5/08 | SAMUEL LOEWENBERG

[Dawnsblood]

Democratic convention planners and fundraisers are looking to make up for some lost time in Denver, now that Barack Obama has finally claimed the party’s presidential nomination.

The Denver host committee needs to raise $40.6 million by June 16 but so far has collected only about $25 million. By contrast, Republicans are already on target to raise $39 million for their convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

“Key supporters have continued to support their candidates and not the convention at this point,” said Steven W. Farber, co-chairman of the Denver host committee.

Meanwhile, organizers for the Aug. 25-28 convention at Denver’s Pepsi Center have been champing at the bit, unable to move forward on many crucial aspects of planning and logistics.

“A lot of final decisions can’t get made: hotel rooms, the order of things, how money is spent. We can only hold off for so long,” said a Denver convention organizer who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “At a certain point, things come to a screeching halt because you can’t move forward.”

The drawn-out nominating fight between Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton has left such fundamentals as the convention program in flux. Without knowing the presumptive nominee, convention planners have held off on establishing key themes and the roster of speakers.

“Right now, it is kind of a waiting game,” the organizer said.

In Denver, convention spokeswoman Natalie Wyeth said the Democratic platform committee will meet in July, as scheduled, and that convention planners intend to highlight such themes such as the “importance of the Rocky Mountain West,” and “the new kind of leadership our party is putting forward in this region.”

[boomop1]

Well, just flux it.