Democrats struggle to pay for convention

Bloomberg:

Democrats canceled a political convention kick-off event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway and will move the activities to Charlotte’s main business district, the convention’s host committee announced. 

“While we regret having to move CarolinaFest away from our great partners at the Charlotte Motor Speedway and the City of Concord, we are thrilled with the opportunity that comes with hosting this event in Uptown Charlotte,” said Dan Murrey, the executive director of the Charlotte in 2012 Convention Host Committee. 

The move comes as party planners are grappling with a fundraising deficit of roughly $27 million, according to two people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss internal party politics. With a party ban on direct contributions from corporations, the host committee has raised less than $10 million, well short of its $36.6 million goal, said one of the people.

... In January, Steve Kerrigan, chief executive officer of the convention committee, said that Democrats were shortening their convention from four days to three “to make room for a day to organize and celebrate the Carolinas, Virginia and the South and kick off the convention at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Labor Day,” Sept. 3.

Kerrigan also announced that Obama would accept his party’s nomination at the almost 74,000-seat Bank of America Stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers professional football team. The outdoor finale would echo Obama’s convention speech at Invesco Field in Denver four years ago. 

While the Democrats will receive a $50 million grant from the Department of Homeland Securityto defray police costs for the Sept. 4-6 convention, security for the Speedway festival may not have been eligible because the event isn’t part of the official convention proceedings....Four years ago, corporate entities accounted for more than $33 million of the amount Democrats raised for the Denver convention, according to campaign finance reports. While Democrats have placed restrictions on how the Charlotte host committee, headed by Mayor Anthony Foxx and Duke Energy Corp. (DUK) CEO Jim Rogers, can raise money, with a ban on direct corporate donations and a $100,000 limit on individual contributions, corporations are allowed to give unlimited in-kind contributions, such as telephone and technology services or gift cards. 

At the same time, Democrats in Charlotte have registered a second committee, New American City Inc., with the Federal Election Commission that does accept corporate contributions....

Democrats hostility toward business is costing them.  The good news for business is they do not have to waste money on these people.  This failure to find alternative financing suggest a lack of enthusiasm for the party and its candidate.  It also suggest his desperate fund raising efforts have sucked the oxygen from available donors.