Snail’s Race to the Convention

There are lots of excuses and plenty of finger-pointing to explain the slow start and delays in planning the Democratic National Convention. But the fact is that 35,000 or so delegates, officials, reporters and others will descend on Los Angeles come August. That’s more than eight months away but not a long time to prepare for such an enormous event.

Completion of the items on the “to do” list for the Aug. 14-17 quadrennial creeps along like a SigAlert on the 405 Freeway. When they arrive, the 4,366 delegates, plus 610 alternates, along with the swarms of politicians and pundits, will expect to find hotel rooms and security waiting, stages built at the Staples Center and meals and transportation arranged, plus endless other details. At this point, convention planners aren’t even close.

Personality conflicts among the billionaire hosts have slowed fund-raising and other arrangements. Democratic Party preferences for unionized labor have also delayed deals on hotel rooms, security, stagehands, transportation and other services. Add to this the party’s long search for someone to head the convention effort. Only in September did the Democratic National Committee name Lydia Camarillo to the post. Party managers and Vice President Al Gore’s office wanted a Latina, and Camarillo, highly qualified, filled the bill. She is the former leader of the Southwest Voter Registration Project. She is also pregnant and will be sidelined at least temporarily early next year.

Los Angeles last hosted a national political convention four decades ago, in 1960, when the Democrats nominated John F. Kennedy for president. The 2000 convention was clinched for Los Angeles when area leaders convinced party officials that the city had bounced back from riots, an earthquake and the recession of the early 1990s. We wanted a chance to showcase our city’s vibrancy, diversity and its many attractions. We also wanted a chance to make a few bucks, $130 million by most estimates.

Come on, folks, it’s time to get moving.