GOP After-Hours Convention Week Parties Set to Defy Staid Republican Stereotype

Party!No, not the Republican political party whose convention will be held August 30 to September 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York, but the array of special events – parties – that will be held in conjunction with all the political speechifying.The events may be nearly two weeks off, but enough invitations have landed so that some trends are starting to emerge.Late nights – lasting into the early mornings – are in. Notwithstanding the stereotype of Republicans as elderly early-to-bed types, many of the convention parties are set to start after the nightly political events and last into the early morning hours.Set to last until 2 a.m. Friday, September 3, is a party hosted by Mayor Bloomberg’s daughter, Emma Bloomberg; Governor Pataki’s daughter, Emily Pataki, and Taylor Whitman, who is a son of the former governor of New Jersey, Christine Todd Whitman.The first daughters, Jenna and Barbara Bush, may also make an appearance at the invitation-only event, which is geared to a 21-40 age group and is expected to attract 800 people. The event will highlight the National Mentoring Partnership, which promotes mentoring programs in which adults volunteer to help young people one-on-one.Also scheduled to last until 2 a.m. is a party Mr. Pataki is hosting Wednesday, September 1, at the Copacabana. That event honors Republican delegates from New York and Puerto Rico; invitations included text in both English and Spanish.Also ending late: a Tuesday night tribute to the secretary of health and human services, Tommy Thompson, by the Republican Party of Wisconsin, where Mr. Thompson used to be governor. That party, at Tavern on the Green, also will go on until 2 a.m.And a party beginning Tuesday night, hosted by the Distilled Spirits Council and the Weekly Standard magazine, is scheduled to last until 1:30 a.m.“The funny thing is that people think of Republicans as so traditional and boring and not a lot of fun,” said Alexandra Preate, chief executive officer of Political Capital LLC, which is doing event-planning work related to the convention. “Republicans know how to have a good time.”“The reason they go late at night is that the convention sessions run from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.,” said another event planner active in Republican circles, Kate Whitman.Yachts are hot: The Seaquest, a motor yacht owned by Dick and Betsy DeVos of the Amway direct-marketing fortune, will be docked during the convention at Chelsea Piers on Manhattan’s West Side, where it will be temporarily re-named the S.S. Scholarship – get it? Scholar-“ship” – and will host a fund-raiser for the Children’s Scholarship Fund. The fund, founded by John Walton of the Wal-Mart family and financier Ted Forstmann, helps pay private or parochial school tuition for poor students.The yacht will host a Thursday, September 2, lunch; tickets are $1,000 each. Donations will be matched by the fund and go directly to pay for scholarships, according to information provided by the fund. Messrs. Walton and Forstmann are among the chairmen of the event, as is the lieutenant governor of Arkansas, Winthrop Rockefeller, living proof there still are Rockefeller Republicans.Details were scarce about the Seaquest, but another DeVos family member, Rich, was listed by Power & Motoryacht magazine as owner of the 168-foot Enterprise V, no. 38 on the magazine’s list of America’s 200 largest yachts. The Enterprise V will also be at the convention and docked at Chelsea Piers, where the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, will use it Tuesday, August 31, for a cocktail party. A spokesman for the Heritage Foundation, Chris Kennedy, said the purpose of the event is “donor outreach,” and that several conservative members of Congress are expected to attend.On Thursday, August 26, The Israel Project, a pro-Israel group, will host a pre-convention reception on a yacht docked at Chelsea Piers, the 122-footMariner III.Those who don’t rate an invitation to those three parties on actual yachts may have to settle for the New York Yacht Club, which will be the site of that Tuesday night’s Distilled Spirits Council-Weekly Standard party. The event, which is also hosted by the Economist and Roll Call, is billed as featuring a VIP cigar lounge sponsored by Cigar Aficionado magazine. The yacht club – which, notwithstanding its name, is situated on a landlocked block of West 44th St. in Midtown Manhattan – is also the site of a Monday night cocktail reception hosted by Americans for Tax Reform.Another popular venue for the convention week is Gotham Hall, a space on Broadway at 36th Street that is convenient to Madison Square Garden. “Business is good,” said Gotham Hall’s managing director, Allan Kurtz. Mr. Kurtz was discreet about the several events there during convention week, but the Manhattan Institute think tank and the American Spectator magazine are among the co-hosts of a Tuesday evening party there featuring radio broadcaster Michael Reagan, son of the late president.What else is going on? Not every convention-related event has a yachting theme or will run past midnight.Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Republican from Florida, will have a 50th birthday party lunch and fund-raiser with about 50 guests on Tuesday at Cinquanta Restaurant on East 50th Street.Mayor Giuliani will headline an event on Wednesday night at the Rainbow Room hosted by Pfizer.The Club for Growth, which raises money for conservative candidates, will host an event at the University Club Thursday evening honoring a Democratic senator from Georgia, Zell Miller, who backed the Bush tax cuts.And Rep. Jerry Weller of Illinois will take a group to watch the Yankees play the Cleveland Indians in the Bronx Tuesday night.

GOP After-Hours Convention Week Parties Set to Defy Staid Republican Stereotype

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