Democrats Pick Denver Over New York for 2008

Over the summer, Mayor Bloomberg was wooing Democratic officials, trying to convince them to hold their 2008 presidential convention in New York.

But yesterday, when the Democratic National Committee finally announced that it would hold the event in Denver, Mr. Bloomberg seemed relieved.

While Mr. Bloomberg said he was "disappointed" and noted that "you always want more business here," he talked more about how hard it would have been for the city to raise money for the convention.

"Commercial conventions come to your city and they bring a lot of money," he said at an event in Coney Island. "The way the Republican and Democratic conventions work is that the city has to pay them to come."

Mr. Bloomberg's once chipper tone about the convention has turned more skeptical in recent months as he's raised concerns about spreading his fundraising capabilities too thin and competing for donors with the local crop of New York candidates expected to run for president.

The job of trying to convince wealthy donors to open up their wallets, he said, would probably have fallen to him. He said his efforts to raise $350 million for the World Trade Center Memorial and more than $40 million for new anti-poverty programs are more important.

"Those are our priorities a lot more than bringing the convention here," he said.

He contrasted the latest bid for the Democratic convention with its winning bid for the Republican National convention four years ago by suggesting that the city needed that one more because it came after the World Trade Center attacks at a time when "people were questioning whether conventions would want to be in New York City."

The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Governor Dean of Vermont, said the tipping point in Denver's bid was the potential political boost of being in the West. He praised Mr. Bloomberg and said the decision had nothing to do with shortcomings of New York's bid.

"It's important to put your money where your mouth is," he said in a conference call. "I have said consistently that we want to have a 50 state strategy."

But, having a mayor publicly expressing concern about raising money certainly could not have helped New York's chances.

Mr. Dean said employing Denver as a backdrop for the party's 2008 nominee will "send a political message" that "we're going to be competitive in the whole country and not just parts of the country."

The DNC has been locked in negotiations with New York and Denver for weeks, but Denver's bid hit a snag when the head of the stagehands union refused to sign a no-strike agreement.

Yesterday the Associated Press reported that Mr. Dean reached a compromise deal with labor by agreeing to staff the convention center there with union workers.

Conventional political wisdom suggests holding the convention in Denver, rather than New York, should have been a "no brainer" for a political party that has recently started making inroads in the Mountain West.

In November, Democrats picked up governorships in six states, including Colorado, and knocked out Republican members of Congress in Montana, Colorado, and Arizona.

Some political analysts said Mr. Bloomberg, who may opt to run for president as an Independent in 2008, might have also had politics on his mind.

A professor of political science at the University of Virginia, Larry Sabato said, there were probably "multi reasons" why Mr. Bloomberg was not that disappointed, including the stress of fundraising, security concerns, and his own political ambitions.

He said he doubted Mr. Bloomberg would run for the White House, but that if he decides to launch a third party candidacy, it would be better for him to do it without the "embarrassing complication of also hosting the Democratic convention."