When Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, a Democratic National Convention co-chair, takes the stage to open tonight’s festivities, Denverites should consider her early story.
Franklin was the Katherine Archuleta of 1998 — or the mayoral liaison helping her city host the Democratic Convention, as Denver’s Archuleta is now.
Franklin helped Atlanta host the union-supporting Dems get past the fact that that city, like Denver, only had one union hotel. Another parallel: it was still viewed as a city that was something of a gamble for the party. Besides being smaller than the New Yorks and Chicagos of the world, Atlanta was in an area of the country not necessarily friendly to Democrats.
Franklin joined Atlanta boosters in using the city’s hosting of the political convention to springboard an even bigger goal: winning the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.
“We were able to say we had a successful convention, so we could add to that experience and successfully bid for an Olympics,” Franklin told The Denver Post last year, after attending a conference on ending homelessness sponsored by Mayor John Hickenlooper.
Hickenlooper demurred in an interview last week when asked whether Denver might seek an Olympics’ bid.
“I think (the convention) is the kind of thing that raises us up, and we become perceived as an international city,” Hickenlooper said.
“And I think that has relevance far beyond whether we’re going to be eligible to be considered for an Olympics.”
