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State's Dems tag-team Dean

Salazar, Ritter and Hick pitch Denver to DNC chairman

Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 16, 2006 at midnight

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Colorado's Democratic political power-troika - Gov.elect Bill Ritter, U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper - teamed up on a conference call Friday to tell party chairman Howard Dean that Denver has what it takes to put on a fantastic 2008 presidential nominating convention.

With former Vermont Gov. Dean expected to pick Denver or New York City early next week to host the national convention, the call was one last lobbying push to ease reported concerns about Denver's ability to raise enough money and hotel rooms, and to deliver on the mammoth logistical and security demands required by the $80 million political bash for 35,000 visitors.

The message of the 20-minute call was clear: "We would make it one of the best-run conventions in history," Hickenlooper recounted.

The Colorado leaders underscored "the fact that Denver's put on the G-8 Summit and we put on the NBA All-Star game," the mayor said. "On any given Friday or Saturday night when we have sporting events going on, we'll have 140,000 people coming in and out of our downtown. So this convention is not out of scale with what our city can do," the mayor added.

"All three of us pledged that we would raise the money and we would make sure that we had senior staff people that would make sure the logistics were handled and the security needs were met," Hickenlooper said.

Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer said: "It was an effort to reassure Gov. Dean that Denver and Colorado can put on a good show."

The trio drove home the point that Colorado is "quite capable of doing this" and gave "overall assurance that if anything needs doing, it'll get done."

Salazar, who just Thursday raised concerns that Denver's odds were slipping, "came away from the conversation confident and enthusiastic about their chances," said his spokesman, Cody Wertz. "I think the three of them came away committed to ensure that they would make it work and address Gov. Dean's concerns.

"You've got three of the state's most influential political figures working on this issue and that's important," Wertz added.

"Sen. Salazar has been working tirelessly on this issue for several days," the spokesman said. Even while taking his wife and two daughters on a Colorado ski vacation, Salazar "has been on the phone constantly."

While the Democratic Party has been pressing Denver to bolster its fund-raising, Denver 2008 Host Committee leader Debbie Willhite said: "Right now, I would rather have our issues to overcome than New York's."

She was referring to the Big Apple's need to find temporary space to house thousands of journalists within Madison Square Garden's convention security zone, given that city's pricey, scarce real estate.

"I'd rather have to raise money than to find land in Manhattan," said Willhite, who helped run former President Bill Clinton's 1992 nominating convention at Madison Square Garden.

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