Friday, January 06, 2006
Democratic Underground discussion of convention sites
WE’VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com
Just found this discussion of potential convention sites over at Democratic Underground. Cities mentioned include Atlanta, New Orleans, Indianapolis, Phoenix, Denver, Minneapolis, Miami, and Las Vegas.
Personally, given my comment below about the Republicans going to Anchorage, this comment is one of the best:
You want DARK red? Have it in Alaska! And the candidate gives the acceptance speech with Denali in the background! The roll call is held under the midnight sun! The delegates can catch salmon! The nominee can fly into Fairbanks, have a “whistlestop” tour on the Alaska Railroad down to Anchorage, and then begin the campaign tour by heading down the Inside Passage on the Marine Highway.
Posted by Matt at 10:23 PM 
Logistics would prevent the convention from ever being held in Anchorage, but c’mon Matt, give them a break.
Anchorage has a very DEMOCRATIC mayor with enormously high approval ratings.
If you’re assuming they are red because of the Bush vote, think again. The Diebold voting system was just proven to be inaccurate (check the countless articles in the Anchorage Daily News, at BradBlog, or at Blackbox Voting.) The Diebold tally gave Republican U.S. Senate candidate Murkowski over 77,000 votes she did not receive.
The Democratic candidate (Knowles) was highly favored to win. In addition, Diebold’s results give Bush over 101,000 votes that he also did NOT receive.
Long story short, you’re assuming Alaska is a cherry red state. The state is overwhelmingly pro-choice and has more registered Independents than any other political party.
The reason a Republican presidential candidate is always chosen in the Land of the Midnight Sun is simple. Residents will not vote for an anti-drilling candidate.
And as far as the Diebold problems, the state has on hand actual hand ballots and the DNC were successful (as of 2-7-06) in having Diebold’s GEM system records released. Standby for fireworks on this one! Alaska is in a unique position because unlike most states, they actually have paper ballots to match up the Diebold screw-up.
Alaska isn’t as red as you think. -JJ
JJ
First the comment about Alaska being dark red was not mine – it was from the DU discussion thread.
But your points are great. Hopefully we can turn Alaska blue, or at least purple, in the future.