Democrats are beginning to see the interior West as a proving ground in the effort to win back the White House and Congress. By hosting their 2008 party convention in Denver, the party would have a golden opportunity to “expand the map,” as the experts say.
The current electoral map is none too kind to the Democrats. For years the party has concentrated on a combination of coastal states and the industrial midwest – and fallen short of success. The south and the Rocky Mountain West have been Republican territory.
But lately the West is increasingly competitive. Democrats hold the governorships of Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Montana, and are making a strong bid here in Colorado, where in 2004 the party won control of the legislature for the first time in 40 years and picked up a U.S. Senate and a House seat.
Many strategists believe Colorado is the ideal backdrop to put an independent and moderate face on the Democratic party. That has propelled Denver’s bid to host the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
Denver’s bid is hampered because the city doesn’t have a unionized hotel (unlike the other cities in the hunt – New York and Minneapolis).
Debbie Willhite, executive director of Denver’s bid, acknowledges that it would be “extremely out of character” for Democrats to choose a city without a union hotel. Yet the party has done so in trying to expand its base, most recently holding the 1988 convention in Atlanta.
Unions are a key part of the Democratic coalition, but the party’s convention shouldn’t be tied to rigid loyalties. The Democratic National Committee doesn’t require a union hotel, but merely an agreement between the host committee and organized labor that there won’t be a work stoppage. But leading labor groups, such as the AFL-CIO, have been fighting Denver’s bid, and some labor leaders are uneasy about staying in non-union hotels. “We simply cannot,” Vivian Guinan, comptroller of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, told The Post.
The focus is on Denver’s new Hyatt, where the Unite Here group is working to organize some 650 workers. Hotel management has signed an agreement with the city promising to “take a neutral approach toward union organizing.”
The city has created a fair environment for a union to form. Whatever the employees decide, we don’t see why it should be a litmus test for the Democratic convention. That would be short-sighted.
