Queen City Gunning For DNC
Maybe if Charlotte lands the Democratic National Convention, the Queen City can finally drop the pesky N.C. from its national moniker. And really, wouldn’t that alone be enough for the uptown lunch bunch to throw gobs of money at the effort – what Mayor Anthony Foxx predicts as upwards of $45 million to meet the DNC threshold, including “a fairly major upfit” of TWC Arena.
Seriously, every national report I’ve stumbled across lists the four contenders left standing as Cleveland, Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Charlotte, N.C. Not Cleveland, Ohio; not Minneapolis, Minn., and not St. Louis, Mo. It’s a little thing, but it’s gotta sting.
It’d be a mistake, though, for anybody to rule Charlotte, N.C., out of the running at this stage, not in a state where Obama eeked out a win in the battleground South, in a city with a post-racial black mayor and a female governor, that just got finished hosting 75k-plus visitors for the NRA Convention (expect to hear that floated far and wide as a cred booster moving forward). Charlotte is also already putting heavy stock in its newly minted treasure trove of uptown goodies (NASCAR HOF, Bechtler MOM, Afro-Am Cultural Arts Center) as a measurable lure for DNC goers.
Still, all things considered, my leanings are toward St. Louis, which has an undeniable mid-west appeal in a state that Obama lost last time around by less than a percentage point. Add to the mix, St. Louis is slated to host the DNC’s General Party Meeting next month; the shindig focuses pretty narrowly on internal party organizational rules, and party leaders are already claiming the choice has no direct bearing on potential sites for the big 2012 party; but there you have it – in St. Louis, no Mo. required.
Some national perspective and pontificating breaks both good and bad for Charlotte, N.C. MSNBC’s First Read all but has Charlotte inked as the golden child:
Everything we’re hearing points to Charlotte as the front-runner — given that it’s a key city in a battleground state where the demographics are trending Democratic, while St. Louis is in a state where the state is slowly growing toward the Republicans. By the way, could the DNC find a way to use the losing convo cities in another way? One more wrench for the Democrats: They are restricting how much corporate money can be used in a city’s bid and one of the four cities could end up having to drop out if they can’t find the money. And here’s a little trivia for you: In presidential contests, Democrats have not lost a state that hosted their convention since 1988 (Georgia), while Republicans haven’t won a state that has hosted their convention since 1992 (Texas).
Meanwhile, politico insider Charlie Cook lends this assessment to the uptown paper of record on the Queen City’s chances: “Not gonna happen.”
“I’d be astonished if Charlotte were picked,” said Charlie Cook, editor of the Washington-based Cook Political Report. “While there are some political reasons to put it in North Carolina, Charlotte is not a city that has hosted many major national conventions of any kind, not just talking about political conventions …
“The politics don’t make that much sense. While Obama carried North Carolina in 2008, that was a very high water mark for Democrats, one unlikely to be replicated in 2012.”
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