When members of the Democratic National Committee...

When members of the Democratic National Committee touch down in Los Angeles this week, they will witness a display not often seen in this city’s history: a unified front among politicians, downtown business leaders and the entertainment industry.

For almost as long as there has been a modern Los Angeles, there has been a powerful group of entertainment executives who represent one of its most significant sources of wealth and power. And yet, those moguls largely have steered clear of local affairs, eschewing them for national influence and occasional bursts of philanthropy.

As Los Angeles pitches for the 2000 Democratic National Convention, however, one of the effort’s leaders is DreamWorks SKG co-founder David Geffen, who spearheads a suddenly engaged entertainment industry in an event of significant civic importance to Los Angeles. Joining him is another Hollywood institution, Lew Wasserman, who will host the delegates at a Universal Studios dinner. Alongside those two are a bevy of executives and politicians from both political parties.

“This hasn’t happened in 30 years,” when Dorothy Chandler and Wasserman together raised money for the downtown Music Center, said billionaire executive Eli Broad. Broad, chairman of SunAmerica, is co-chairing the convention effort with Geffen and lawyer-investor Bill Wardlaw. “This is quite an occurrence.”

Andy Spahn, a DreamWorks executive, agreed that the unified effort was a rare one and said it reflected in part his company’s determination to build itself a place in the civic life of Los Angeles. “We are trying to make Los Angeles our home for our new studios,” he said.

In fact, the entertainment-downtown business nexus reflects not just the ascendance of Geffen and DreamWorks but also the methodical, though not always successful, cultivation of cross-industry relations in recent years.

The Disney family made the single largest contribution to the downtown music center, to be named Disney Hall, and Broad, who headed the fund-raising effort, then turned to downtown businesses--including Ralphs/Food 4 Less, Arco and Times Mirror--for millions more. Meanwhile, a high-powered business CEO group known as the Los Angeles Business Advisors has reached out--so far in vain--for an entertainment chief executive or two to join its organization. And Mayor Richard Riordan has built a friendship with NewsCorp. executive Rupert Murdoch, whose television and sports empire is among the world’s largest and who recently gobbled up the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In addition, the entertainment industry, infamous for its unwillingness to dig deep for the arts in Los Angeles, recently has made a few contributions to such causes as the Ahmanson Theatre. Geffen, meanwhile, has contributed hefty sums to UCLA’s Westwood Playhouse and the Museum of Contemporary Art. The playhouse and a branch of the museum both were renamed in his honor.

Until now, the steps toward bridging the city’s long-divided downtown and Westside business communities have mostly been built through philanthropy or friendships. The campaign to lure the 2000 Democratic convention is different: It involves leaders of both camps not just giving money, but working together.

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It is a powerful collaboration. Wardlaw brings deep roots in the Democratic Party and solid relations with the White House. Broad is a deep-pocket fund-raiser who held the most lucrative private party ever for the Democrats. And Geffen is not just a rich and powerful industry executive, but also a Friend of Bill.

That friendship helped convince Geffen to get involved in the convention effort when Riordan contacted him about the possibility.

“We’ve established a tremendous number of relationships,” Spahn said of Geffen and DreamWorks, “so we’re in a unique position of essentially talking to our friends.”

Big players notwithstanding, as recently as a few months ago, the convention effort seemed a longshot for Los Angeles. Most observers picked Philadelphia as the front-runner, arguing that Vice President Al Gore’s friendship with that city’s mayor gave it the edge.

Now, victory for Los Angeles appears possible, though by no means assured.

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That turn of events is largely because of the dismal showing that Philadelphia put on last month--committee members were greeted at the airport by pickets and promptly returned home without ever touring the city. Philadelphia will get another shot, but for now at least, insiders say the contest is between Los Angeles and Boston. And since the conventional political wisdom holds that Democrats would be reluctant to kick off the millennium in Sen. Edward Kennedy’s hometown, the game seems to be Los Angeles’ to lose.

Still, Los Angeles presents its own troubles, and the leaders of the effort to lure the convention have managed to find plenty to fuss about--from big issues to small. Take the issue of where to have dinner after Tuesday night’s cocktail reception at the Getty Center.

Riordan offered to host it at his home, an elegant and warm Brentwood spread with its own chapel, sloping lawn and gracious, two-story library that shows off part of the mayor’s 40,000-volume collection. But then Roz Wyman, a Democratic committee member from Los Angeles, argued that Spago might be easier and spiffier.

The mayor’s people were irritated by the suggestion that the mayor’s house didn’t pass muster, and Wyman backed off.

Wyman insists that the contretemps was a mere misunderstanding, that she never meant to slight the mayor or his house and that she only wanted to suggest that Spago might be more convenient. In any event, the party’s back on in Brentwood. Afterward, the visitors will head to the Conga Room, where actor Jimmy Smits will host a late night of salsa dancing.

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More serious is the issue of how to persuade site selection officials that they are safe in planning an event that will draw tens of thousands of people to Staples Center, which at the moment does not exist except as a large hole in the ground in the middle of downtown.

To overcome that, Staples officials intend to present the visiting delegates with a computerized model of the facility and the plans for it. On Tuesday morning, delegates will get a look at the plans after a breakfast event at the Convention Center.

The Democrats have been willing to risk it before on a center that existed only in the imagination. When they selected Chicago for the 1996 gala, the United Center was still under construction, and it was ready in plenty of time for the event.

This time, Staples officials have two main arguments for trusting that they can deliver their facility in time for the Democrats. First is that construction is underway and is proceeding without a hitch so far. Second, and in all likelihood more convincing, is that the Los Angeles Kings are scheduled to begin play at the Staples Center in October 1999, with the Lakers and Clippers soon to follow.

“You think we’d have a problem letting down the Democrats?” one Staples official joked. “Try getting a whole hockey team mad at you.”

So determined are the Staples officials to corral the convention that they have agreed to shut the center down for two months leading up to the event. That would give the Democrats and the horde of media expected to cover the event all the time they need to work out any kinks.

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Despite those and other challenges, Los Angeles’ problems largely pale next to its promises, which range from the weather to the raw numbers of politics--in this case, the number 54.

That’s how many electoral votes come with carrying California--far more than any other state--and the conventional political wisdom is that the party’s presidential nominee gets a bounce in whatever area holds the convention. To be sure, that’s no guarantee of success: Bob Dole, after all, was nominated in San Diego, only to go down in flames in California against President Clinton.

What makes Los Angeles even more important in terms of political convention bounce is the reality of media coverage in this area. Local Los Angeles television stations reach roughly 14 million people, but they are notoriously shy of politics, and may well give short shrift to a convention in Philadelphia or Boston.

Serve them up a local event, though, and chances are they’ll bite, carrying the Democratic feast of self-congratulations to viewers throughout this politically vital region.

“If the Democrats want 14 million Southern California viewers to watch their convention, the way to do it is to bring the convention to Los Angeles,” said Broad.

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Determined to press their case that the Democrats need California, organizers have managed to plaster the number 54 on every press release and sundry other items. After the Staples presentation, each committee member will be given a Los Angeles Kings jersey--every one carries the number 54.

But the local organizers stress that politics is just one part of the equation. There is also facilities and support and, not to be forgotten, comfort.

Asked when the committee members were scheduled to arrive, Broad answered: “Some will be getting here Monday, but others are trickling in over the weekend, trying to escape the oppressive heat in places like Philadelphia and Boston.”