DENVER—Mayor John Hickenlooper has gone on 20 trips to raise money for August’s Democratic National Convention, including a trip this week to Kansas City, the Rocky Mountain News reported.
According to an accounting of the mayor’s DNC-related travel reported by the newspaper in Saturday editions, Hickenlooper has made pitches for money on both coasts as well as points in between.
Since March 2007, Hickenlooper has met with real estate magnate Walter Shorenstein in San Francisco, Loews Hotels’ chairman Jonathan Tisch in New York and Texas billionaire Edward Bass, one of the world’s richest people.
Hickenlooper’s spokeswoman Sue Cobb said the mayor’s fundraising pitches have been a chance for influential people to learn about the city’s business opportunities and cultural assets. She said most, if not all, of the fundraising pitches were added on to travel planned as part of regular city business.
If Hickenlooper took any trips just to raise money for the DNC, Cobb said the host committee would have paid for it.
“Definitely, the mayor said, ‘No city money would have been used to pay for anything related to fundraising,'” Cobb said.
Despite Hickenlooper’s efforts the Democratic National Convention faces a possible shortfall of $15 million. That has complicated logistics for the August event and forced it to abruptly postpone a media walkthrough of the site scheduled for next week.
During his visit to Kansas City, one of the potential donors Hickenlooper met was Terrence Dunn, president and CEO of JE Dunn Construction Group.
After some chitchat about politics and the residential towers Dunn built near Denver’s convention center, Dunn asked Hickenlooper what he could do to help.
Hickenlooper told him that he and the host committee thought they were behind in raising their goal of $46 million. Then he made his pitch.
“Conventions shouldn’t be just held on the coasts,” he said.
“I agree,” Dunn said. “It’s a chance to showcase a region.”
The mayor and Dunn talked about the need for a regional network between Denver and Kansas City and Dunn offered to help.
“We’ll try and do something,” Dunn said.
Hickenlooper left the meeting without a check. He said Dunn seemed to tense up when he told him other firms had given $1 million but he hoped Dunn might be able to contribute $50,000 or $100,000.
———
Information from: Rocky Mountain News,
