Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Florida doesn’t get a hotel assignment

WE’VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com

Readers of this blog know I focus on logistics, not politics, and there’s an assumption that in this day and age the nominee will be chosen months before the convention starts. So there is essentially no overlap anymore between the politics of the primaries and the logistics of the convention. It’s Howard Dean’s job to prepare the convention and the national party and turn over the keys to the nominee as soon as he or she is picked.

For that reason I’ve chosen not to cover the debate over the primary schedule, and states moving earlier than the DNC allowed, because I assumed that as soon as the primaries were over those states whose delegates are being threatened would be restored. I mean, can you imagine the Democratic nominee actually supporting the non-seating of the Florida delegation at the convention? All it takes is a vote by the delegates at the convention to overturn any decisions made earlier, and by that point, who cares whether Florida gets seated. Continue Reading...

Monday, November 19, 2007

Congress refusing to pay for convention security

WE’VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com

The U.S. government has traditionally, and I think appropriately paid for much of the security for the major party national conventions. Well Congress is taking their time:

Denver will be forced to pay millions of dollars in upfront security costs for the 2008 Democratic National Convention if federal appropriations remain stalled in Congress, several officials said st week. The concern is at such a level that Rep. Diana DeGette, a Denver Democrat, and Rep. Betty McCollum, DeGette’s counterpart representing St. Paul, Minn., which is hosting the Republican National Convention, plan to send letters this week to the congressional leadership and to the leadership of the House Appropriations Committee urging action. Continue Reading...

Friday, November 16, 2007

Press focuses on food at Denver walkthrough

WE’VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com

While I know that there was likely talk of radio frequencies, camera placements and floor access, the press, or at least the press covering the press at the media walkthrough, chose to focus on the issue of food at the 2008 Democratic Convention:

The economic challenges facing journalism are grave, but they haven’t managed to kill one of the industry’s most venerated traditions: the all-expenses-paid trip of dubious news value. Despite planned remarks by Democratic National Committee chairman (and recovering screamer) Howard Dean, the 2008 Democratic National Convention’s Fall Media Walk-Through, staged on November 13 at the Pepsi Center, didn’t promise to generate significant headlines. Nevertheless, representatives of media organizations planning to cover next August’s bash flocked to Denver by the hundreds. Most of them learned next to nothing, but they ate very well. Continue Reading...

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Pepsi Center media walkthrough today

WE’VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com

The media covering the 2008 Democratic Convention gets its first logistical look inside the Pepsi Center today:

A few hundred representatives from the full spectrum of news media are gathering today in the Pepsi Center to scope out the realities of covering the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The editors, producers and trains-on-time technicians will get “a top to bottom look about,” said the Democratic National Convention Committee’s Wally Podrazik, a veteran of convention logistics.
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The DNCC estimates that more than 15,000 members of the media, including staff from stage crews to assistants to news anchors and producers, will be in Denver during convention week, Aug. 25-28. Besides getting an overview of the convention site and a chance to learn more about hotel rooms and credentials, many of the representatives will be looking for ways to showcase new advances in technology, Podrazik said. Continue Reading...