Will Big Apple blink on Dems?

Stuart Steers, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 6, 2007 at midnight

Text size

More Local News

Does New York even want the 2008 Democratic National Convention?

That was the question many of those involved in Denver's bid for the gathering were asking Friday, following several statements by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg that seemed to indicate a lack of enthusiasm.

Denver is competing with New York City for the right to host the Democrats, and national Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean has said he'll make a decision by the end of January.

Bloomberg told a radio audience Friday that New York couldn't make the same financial commitment to the Democrats that it did to win the Republican convention in 2004. He said that, at the time, New York was still trying to recover from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and needed a boost, but doesn't have those problems now.

"Today, the hotels are full, the restaurants are doing well and the conventions don't bring the kind of economic activity they used to bring," Bloomberg said. "The city just can't afford to go on the hook."

Bloomberg has previously said New York has several major fundraising drives under way for other projects, and it might be difficult to raise the money for the convention.

On Thursday, Bloomberg said at a news conference that Denver was the city "which everybody says is the odds-on favorite" to win the convention.

Denver is still struggling with a labor issue that has held up its bid. The local stagehands' union, which would do setup work for the convention, has refused to sign a required pledge not to strike or picket during the gathering. The stagehands object to working in the normally nonunion Pepsi Center.

National labor leaders in Washington, D.C., are now involved in trying to mediate that dispute.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News