QuickOverview

The 2008 Democratic National Convention will be held from August 25 to August 28 in Denver, Colorado. The convention, sponsored by the United States Democratic Party, will nominate a candidate for the presidency.

In the past when the Republican party held the White House, the Democrats held their convention in July, and vice versa. This convention is held later than normal because the Democrats want to hold the convention after the 2008 Summer Olympics and to "maximize momentum for our Democratic Ticket in the final months of the Presidential election".

Formal leadership

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will be nominated to serve as Permanent Chair of the Convention. Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, Texas State Senator Leticia Van de Putte, and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, will be nominated as Permanent Convention Co-Chairs. The CEO of the Democratic National Convention Committee is Leah D. Daughtry.

Rules

On February 2, 2007, the Democratic Party published 'Call for the 2008 Democratic National Convention', the rules governing the convention. There will be 3,253 pledged delegates, those committed to vote for a particular candidate, selected by primary voters and caucus participants. There will be 796 unpledged delegates, those free to vote for any candidate, colloquially known as superdelegates. The superdelegates consist of DNC members, Democratic Congress members and Governors, and other prominent Democrats. The final number of superdelegates will not be known until March 1, 2008.

The pledged delegates are allocated among the states according to two main criteria: 1) proportion of votes each state gave the candidate in the last three Presidential elections; and 2) percentage of votes each state has in the Electoral College. Fixed numbers of delegates are allocated for Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Democrats Abroad. Under the party's Delegate Selection Rules for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, delegates are awarded via proportional representation with a minimum threshold of 15% of votes in a state or congressional district to receive delegates. The delegate population must reflect the state's ethnic distribution; and at least 50% of the delegates must be women.

Venue

The convention is to be held at Denver's Pepsi Center and will be the 100th anniversary of Denver's 1908 Democratic National Convention. William Jennings Bryan was nominated as the 1908 Democratic Presidential candidate, only to lose the election in a landslide against Republican William Howard Taft. The Libertarian Party will hold its 2008 convention in Denver from May 22 to May 26.

Site selection

In late November 2005, 35 cities were invited by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to bid for the right to host the 2008 convention: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, Miami-Dade County, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, St Louis, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC.

Eleven cities originally accepted the invitation to bid for the convention in January 2006: Anaheim, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New Orleans, New York, Orlando, Phoenix, and San Antonio. A formal Request for Proposal was mailed to participating cities on February 27 and the deadline for cities to respond was May 19, 2006.

Only three cities submitted proposals to host the convention: Denver, Minneapolis/St. Paul and New York. On July 12, New Orleans dropped out. The cities were visited by a 10-member Technical Advisory Committee in June 2006. On September 27, the Republicans announced they would have their 2008 convention in St. Paul, removing St. Paul from consideration; leaving Denver and New York as potential hosts. Despite hard lobbying by New York party boosters, then-Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg dealt the campaign a major blow when he announced the city lacked the financial means to support a convention. Denver was chosen as the host on January 11, 2007, as Democrats looked to make gains in the "Purple West" states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico.

Labor issues

The head of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local No. 7, Jim Taylor, refused to sign a no-strike agreement for the convention. Pepsi Center normally uses non-union labor, but will use Taylor's union during the convention, and Taylor wants Pepsi Center to use his union for all events.

Preparations

The work to prepare Pepsi Center for the Democratic National Convention is expected to cost $15 million. In addition, a 220,000 sq. ft. temporary building to be used by the media will be built adjacent to Pepsi Center.

Convention organizers expect 35,000 attendees, out of which 5,000 will be delegates, and 15,000 media personnel.

Brokered convention

With the number of delegates being extremely close between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the possibility has arisen that this may be the first brokered convention in over half a century, something DNC chairman Howard Dean has warned against. The hypothetical situation of a brokered convention involving superdelegates and a dispute over seating the delegates from the two disqualified states has led some commentators to compare it with the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which ended in a divided party and unhappiness over the outcome. Another possibility is that the race could be decided by the first vote at the convention, like the 1976 Republican convention.

Delegates from Florida and Michigan

The Florida and Michigan legislatures pushed forward their primaries to January in contravention of party rules and were stripped of their delegates. The Clinton campaign came out in favor of seating them, despite the occurrence. This may lead to a credentials fight, especially if the delegate totals are close.

Related Sites  (exchange links with this article)

YourHub.com: Democratic Convention 2008 - Highlights local political perspectives and participation, offers tools for finding things to do during convention, provides roundup of convention news

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