May 5, 2004
PAYING FOR THE WAKE:
Democrat gathering is facing cash woes: Convention panel $4.6m short of goal (Rick Klein, May 5, 2004, Boston Globe)
With 83 days left before the Democratic National Convention, local organizers remain $4.6 million short of fulfilling their fund-raising commitment and have brought in only about $650,000 in new cash donations in the past month. [...]Fund-raising efforts have been impaired by the fact that 30 of Boston's 32 public-employee unions are working without contracts, and several national labor leaders have refused to help out Mayor Thomas M. Menino financially while their local affiliates are engaged in tense negotiations with the city. Burns declined to comment on the status of contract talks or their impact on fund-raising.
The unions are putting more pressure on Menino in the run-up to the convention. Today, they're holding a rally at the FleetCenter, where the Democrats will convene July 26 to 29, to highlight the fact that the unions do not have deals with the city in place.
Thomas J. Nee, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, said he is sure that Menino will need tax dollars to pay for the convention, a prospect he said his union will vigorously oppose. The patrolmen's association is threatening to picket outside the convention if the union doesn't have a deal by then.
Oh yeah, the Democrats can certainly afford to have Labor outside shrieking during their convention... Posted by Orrin Judd at May 5, 2004 8:37 AM
Here is Kerry's Sister souljah moment - he can say what Calvin Coolidge said 85 years ago. Will it happen? Non.
Posted by: jim hamlen at May 5, 2004 9:31 AMWhen Boston was chosen for the conventions, the city unions hit the lottery. This will be the biggest holdup since Jesse James.
Posted by: pj at May 5, 2004 12:12 PMIt's a small jackpot compared to the Big Dig.
Posted by: PapayaSF at May 5, 2004 2:47 PMIt wasn't cheesed-off conservatives that thronged the streets of downtown Los Angeles four years ago (and made me get to work at 5:00 a.m. for a week lest we proles working for a living cause such traffic congestion as to inconvenience the delegates, and prevented me from going out to lunch at a normal hour lest we interrupt the loony parade). Either the unions will be bought off, or they'll be just a little added noise. Almost certainly the former, I hasten to add.
Posted by: Random Lawyer at May 5, 2004 7:31 PM