PARKER: Dems scale back DNC parties from 24 to 1
By Penny Parker, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published June 4, 2008 at 3:20 p.m.
Updated June 4, 2008 at 8:38 p.m.
Photo by Rocky Mountain News
Penny Parker, On The Town columnist
Cozy up, delegates!
Instead of the 24 venues that were skedded to host delegations on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, delegates will boogie together in one big giant donkey-do likely inside the Colorado Convention Center.
"We haven't nailed down the convention center," said host committee spokesman Chris Lopez. "We haven't nailed down details and plans. It's a little sketchy in terms of location."
But what we know is that letters went out earlier this week to the 24 venues, including Wings Over the Rockies, Belmar Center, Wildlife Experience and the Denver ChopHouse withdrawing reservations for separate delegation parties.
Some of the planned party places already took DNC dough to hold the hot spots, and whether or not Lopez's peeps will get their deposits back is under negotiation.
"We may not get some deposits back, but we may get some deposits back," he said. "We're still working on those venues on whether or not they will refund us."
Isn't this the same DNC Host Committee that's struggling to meet deadlines to raise the required $40.6 million to throw this political shindig?
Lopez, however, pooh-poohs the notion that the consolidation into one party venue has anything to do with the fundraising shortfall.
"Our fundraising numbers will be there," Lopez said. "We're still 60 percent to goal and farther than Boston was in 2004. Denver is a lot farther down the road, and in greater shape than any host committee before."
When I asked Lopez the reason for the consolidation, he said, "Because the group (Friends of New Orleans) we're starting to work with has a really cool idea, and we wanted to figure out a way to execute it."
So the big-bang bash will also serve as a fundraiser for nonprofit Friends of New Orleans, raising money to help rebuild the post-Katrina city. But delegates won't be charged to attend the event, so how will the party raise money for the charity?
"The Host Committee will spend some of its own money for that event," Lopez said. Calls and an e-mail to Friends of New Orleans weren't returned.
Here is a list of party venues that have been canceled for Aug. 24:
Belmar Center — Alaska, Indiana, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Tennessee
Blair Caldwell Library — Democrats Abroad, Virgin Islands
Botanic Gardens — South Carolina
Center for the Visual Arts — Georgia
Colorado History Museum — Arkansas, Kentucky, Wisconsin
Denver Art Museum — Illinois
Denver Chophouse — Kansas
Denver Public Library — Iowa
Denver Zoo — Alabama, North Dakota, South Dakota
Downtown Aquarium — Connecticut, Delaware, Missouri
Exdo Event Center — California
Grant Humphries — Minnesota
Governor's Mansion — Colorado
Hudson's Gardens — New Jersey
The Lab at Belmar — American Samoa, Guam, Idaho, Hawaii
Museo de las Americas — District of Columbia
Museum of Nature & Science — Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah
Palazzo Verdi — Nebraska, Oklahoma
Phipps Mansion — New Hampshire, Vermont
Phipps Pavilion — Mississippi, Montana, Wyoming
Pinnacle Club — New York
Red Rocks — North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia
Wildlife Experience — Texas
Wings Over the Rockies — Arizona, Louisiana, Maryland, Oregon, Washington
Penny Parker’s column appears Tuesday through Saturday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-AM (630).
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June 4, 2008
3:27 p.m.
Suggest removal
LingLingfor_prez writes:
Donkey-do? I understand why they would want to have one party. But donkey-do? Nice one Penny.
June 4, 2008
3:39 p.m.
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junglegymco writes:
To the people on here who think the RMN is "liberal" . . . HA! This article shows the typical slant of the right-wing RMN. "Donkey-do". " . . .things that make you go hmmmmm." "poo-poos". Can you say "Editorial?"
June 4, 2008
3:52 p.m.
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TheDenverB writes:
yes, we can say editorial.
penny is a columnist, everyone knows that, so what did you expect from her?
it even has "PARKER:" in the headline to make you aware of that.
and it's just a silly (and rather good) play on words, don't read into it so much.
June 4, 2008
3:53 p.m.
Suggest removal
rickg19611 writes:
"Lopez, however, pooh-poohs the notion that the consolidation into one party venue has anything to do with the fundraising shortfall."
Yeah... another Democrat lie. Anyone stupid enough to believe that cancelling 96% of your planned parties, after being forced to admit that you've missed 80% of the funding targets, is NOT the result of funding shortages is a retard.
But then it isn't called the Dimwitocrat Party for nothing....
June 4, 2008
4:04 p.m.
DenverDan writes:
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
June 4, 2008
4:12 p.m.
Suggest removal
TheDenverB writes:
sasquatch,
are you only able to focus on Fox-News talking points and soundbytes about things that have little or nothing to do with the candidate or the real issues at hand?
to quote a very good friend:
"It's too bad that nobody - I'll include Obama - can talk policy. Attack politics and empty prattle sure do fill up the echo chamber more enticingly than informed thought.
Please reflect on the awesome hypocrisy of smashing a candidate for having no ideas and then focusing only on the empty, sensationalist media coverage. A quick visit to the website of any candidate will yield some policy proposals, even for a rhetorician like Obama."
June 4, 2008
4:18 p.m.
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TheDenverB writes:
toenee,
what does john mccain have to do with the democratic national convention and why in the world would he be here in Denver for it?
June 4, 2008
4:30 p.m.
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Ken writes:
rickg~
Do you make it a point to be so ignorant or does it just come natural? You're a moron!
June 4, 2008
4:35 p.m.
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TheDenverB writes:
if you have to explain a joke, it isn't funny.
June 4, 2008
4:39 p.m.
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Ken writes:
Actually rickg....I shouldn't single you out. All of you republican extremists are morons!! You talk all kinds of crap about the democrats, but what exactly has your poster boy done for us in the last eight years?
June 4, 2008
4:56 p.m.
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DenverDan writes:
Outstanding Ken. He will not have a answer. He thinks he knows more about Obama than McCain. Sad..Sad
June 4, 2008
5:07 p.m.
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jb1575 writes:
Now that Obama is the nominee, Denver's DNC planning committee should get on the phone with Oprah and ask her to write a check for the fundraising shortfall. Then we just have to rename every public facility in the city and county of Denver to "Oprah Center", "Oprah Field", etc.
June 4, 2008
5:37 p.m.
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TheDenverB writes:
now, that's not true toecheese...
i find conservatives with a poor sense of humor who still think their jokes are funny to be QUITE amusing. i get it that conservatives think mccain is not of their ilk...
but really though, your joke was horrible.
i mean, it's the internet... yeah, you could have been a conservative making a bad joke but 1) who here knows you are a conservative? and 2) there's plenty of morons on this board already, so it's pretty easy to assume you just had no idea what you were talking about.
that's another rule of comedy: know your audience.
i also find Gene to be quite funny, with all of his pet-names for Obama. Its almost like a junior-high-age school girl with a crush on the guy her friends all think is 'icky'.
(not to mention is really shows the maturity level at which Gene can deal with politics. gaffes in his speaches, mocking the mans name and regurgitating fox-news soundbites of his former preacher is all Gene can grasp on to.)
June 4, 2008
7:45 p.m.
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Houstongolfnut writes:
Socialism is certainly believable change from this bunch. You guys want that? Really?
June 4, 2008
10:05 p.m.
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windbourne writes:
Actually ToeNee,
>>Your a liberal, nothing is funny to you.
I would say that your education is FUNNY to me. I am guessing that you have grown up as a product of either reagan or W.
June 4, 2008
10:23 p.m.
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CyberHostage writes:
I heard a rumor that The Bangles would only perform at ONE party, so that's why they condensed the festivities.
June 5, 2008
11:11 a.m.
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P_Denver writes:
OObama + OOprah in OO8!
Now THERE'S a slogan!
June 5, 2008
2:08 p.m.
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Avs_Blow writes:
GO WINGS!!!! STANLEY IS HOME IN HOCKEYTOWN AGAIN!!!
June 5, 2008
5:03 p.m.
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raysmom writes:
WINDEBORNE- even your name is "so existential". Yuck. Get off of your high horse about a common spelling error- tuck in your snarky superiority, your elitism is showing.
It's a funny play on words, the Donkey-Do! I'm not convinced it "meant" anything- it's just funny. Grow some skin, those who were so outraged.
On point- this is really a callous thing to do to the businesses who were counting on these parties, and whose preaparations were in full swing. The woman in charge says it isn't $$$$, they just wanted to shift gears because "a really cool thing to do came up"? Wow. OK. Well, as long as it's really cool.
Either she's a liar, or she's unbelievably arrogant. It's the DNC- probably both! I guess these businesses left holding the bag will know better who to trust in the future. So telling...
June 5, 2008
5:06 p.m.
Suggest removal
raysmom writes:
oops- "preparations"- we wouldn't want Wind to have apoplexy over my typo!