Democrats Halfway to Convention Funding Goal

Individuals, corporations and the city have pledged $19.4 million in cash and services to host the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, or 55% of what is needed, organizers announced Friday.

The status report came a year and a day before the opening gavel drops on what Mayor Richard Riordan promised will be “the greatest convention in the history of politics.”

Los Angeles’ first presidential nominating convention since the Democrats chose John F. Kennedy in 1960 will also be the first American political convention funded solely by private money. The city will only provide in-kind contributions such as security and traffic assistance for the convention, scheduled for Aug. 14-17 at the new Staples Center.

More than 35,000 people, including 15,000 from the media, are expected to attend, and, more valuable to the Los Angeles economy, they will stay at area hotels and eat at local restaurants.

“Our streets will be quite lively,” said City Councilwoman Rita Walters, whose district includes the Staples Center. “Democrats put on a great convention. We know how to work hard, and we know how to enjoy ourselves.”

The convention is expected to generate $150 million in local economic activity, organizers said, in addition to international exposure for Los Angeles.

“I don’t think we could buy that publicity for $100 million,” said Eli Broad, co-chairman of the convention’s host committee.

Broad reported Friday that since March, when Los Angeles beat out six other cities to host the convention, corporate sponsors and individuals have pledged $4.2 million in cash toward the $35-million event. In-kind gifts worth $15.2 million have been promised by the city and corporations, he said.

If the committee cannot raise all the money it needs, Broad and a trio of wealthy Angelenos have promised to contribute the rest themselves.

The model for funding the convention is based on the 1984 Summer Olympics, also held in Los Angeles, for which private citizens raised the money.

Despite the 2000 convention’s unprecedented level of private support, Broad said the Democratic National Committee requires that corporate advertising, at least within the Staples Center, be low-key. The Democrats’ candidate is unlikely to accept the party’s nomination beneath a billboard.

“It’s not like a baseball stadium, where you have Budweiser beer or whatever in the background,” Broad said.

He declined to announce the names of the convention’s major donors until a second fund-raising report in October.

Although television networks have scaled back their coverage of conventions since the gavel-to-gavel days of Kennedy’s nomination, the use of the Staples Center’s technology to make this one interactive for viewers should revive interest, said Roy Romer, general chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

“This nation will pay attention if a convention is run on the issues,” said Romer, the former Colorado governor.

Although the convention’s primary purpose is to rally the party around its challenger to the Republicans, who are convening two weeks earlier in Philadelphia, Los Angeles convention organizers are trying to portray it as a nonpartisan event that will celebrate the American political process and Los Angeles.

“Because it’s great for Los Angeles,” Riordan said, “it’s already nonpartisan.”

The mayor, a Republican, said he expects to attend. “They’ll let one [Republican] in,” he said.