DNC defaults on Denver?

The host committee for the Democratic convention will miss a key fundraising goal tomorrow, according to CNN, and the city now has to wonder whether they will be forced to pay millions of dollars for the Democratic convention. A rumored $15-million shortfall forced the cancellation of a media walkthrough this week, and the Democrats have had to cancel a number of auxiliary events already. The poor fundraising numbers puts the Democrats at a major disadvantage to the Republicans already:

The host committee for the Democratic National Convention faces a possible shortfall of $15 million, complicating logistics for the August event and forcing it to abruptly postpone a media walkthrough of the site scheduled for next week.

The Democratic National Committee has asked the cash-strapped panel to raise $40.6 million by Monday to finance the event. Last month, the committee said it had just $25 million in cash, and it has failed to meet each of several fundraising deadlines since signing a contract with the DNC last year. …

The Democratic National Convention Committee announced Friday that it had delayed a session for the news media next Thursday at the Pepsi Center, site of the August 25-28 convention, and hoped to
reschedule at a later date. “Postponing the event allows us to work through outstanding issues and ensure a successful event when media do arrive in Denver,” said Theodore LeCompte, the DNCC’s
director of media logistics.

A DNCC official who asked not to be identified cited financial and logistics problems for the delay.

Earlier this month, the Denver 2008 Host Committee canceled 24 separate welcoming events around Denver for convention delegates.

In contrast, and in a rare moment of Republican advantage, the RNC has outperformed expectations for its St. Paul convention. They had ten times the cash on hand of the DNC and have already begun coordinating with the John McCain campaign on the election. Democrats don’t have that luxury and may not until well after the convention.

Presidential candidates rely on big, splashy conventions to get a big boost in the media. The Democrats have two big problems with that this year. First, they have their convention scheduled for the week before the RNC gala in St. Paul, which doesn’t give them more than a couple of days of post-convention media chatter before all eyes focus on the Republicans. Second, if they can’t get the media coordination started now, it’s likely to go awry and limit even that earned media coverage.

If Barack Obama gets his rumored $100-million June, expect him to direct a big portion of that to the DNC. However, Obama’s fundraising has fallen off three straight months from February’s $50 million to $31 million in April, and he has already run through most of that. With John McCain wooing some of Hillary Clinton’s fundraisers, Obama may not have as much cash to assist the convention as some may predict.