Both Parties Wear Smiles for Democrats' Convention Site
By RICK LYMAN - NYT
BOSTON — The capital of this northeastern, union-heavy state may not seem the best locale for the Democratic Party to nominate Senator John Kerry, a hometown hero. After all, if Mr. Kerry were a preacher, Massachusetts would be his choir.
At the same time, there is no better backdrop for Republicans hoping to cast Mr. Kerry as an out-of-touch Ted Kennedy liberal than a coronation focusing the nation's attention on a state that is expected to be the first allowing gay marriages.
What's more, grumbling can already be heard in the choir loft — police officers without contracts are threatening to picket outside the convention and residents are worried about commuter chaos all around it.
So, all things being equal, the Democratic Party might have gotten a little lift if its presidential nominating convention in July were being held elsewhere, in some battleground state like Ohio or Pennsylvania, said Rod O'Connor, chief executive of the Democratic National Convention Committee. But, he said, for the mass of voters across the country, the selection of a convention site has little meaning compared with the message that comes out of the event.
"Besides, Cleveland didn't bid this time," Mr. O'Connor said. "Miami did, New York did and Detroit did. And we decided to come here."
It will be months before it is known whether that choice — made long before it became clear that Mr. Kerry would be the nominee — was a wise one for Democrats, but there is no shortage of opinions in the meantime.
"I think having the convention in Boston is a terrible decision," said Edward I. Koch, the former New York mayor. It would have been much better to have the gathering in New York, he said, tapping into the party's populous heart and refusing to cede Sept. 11 symbolism to the Republicans, who will have their convention in New York starting in late August.
In defending the selection, some Democrats insist that Boston's image as America's birthplace will ring enough patriotic bells to drown out any Republican mischief.
"Boston is the home of the first public school, the first public library and the birthplace of freedom in this country," Mr. O'Connor said. "Those are excellent backdrops to talk about education, to talk about personal freedom."
But already, Republicans are trying to link Mr. Kerry with his home state through the Boston Fog Report, a series of e-mail statements sent en masse by the Bush campaign to journalists and Republicans to paint Mr. Kerry as obscuring the record and flip-flopping on issues, as well as being a Massachusetts liberal.
Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said, "The fact that they are having their convention in Boston does help reinforce that, especially if voters who watch the convention come away with a perception of a Democratic Party that is going back to its traditional liberal roots."
And then there is the gay marriage issue, which Republican leaders believe will cause many independents to support President Bush.
Massachusetts has been at the center of the controversy since the state's highest court ruled that same-sex marriage would become legal on May 17. Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, and the Democratic-controlled legislature both support a ban on gay marriage, but thousands of reporters will descend on Boston to cover the convention long before the Constitution can be amended.
In a theory more hopeful for Democrats, advanced by Boston boosters, far from being a liability, holding the convention here will be a boon for Mr. Kerry. Having a hometown candidate will energize the convention, Mr. O'Connor said, and that enthusiasm will be apparent on television.
"I can remember my mother making me stay up when John Kennedy won the nomination in 1960," said City Councilor Maureen E. Feeney, a Democrat who is the Council's convention liaison. "I can remember us running out and dancing in the streets. I guess part of the enthusiasm that people in Boston are feeling is that for them, like me, there is that little girl who is saying, hey, it could happen again."
For all the discussion, local officials and campaign scholars play down the importance of the convention's location in the outcome of the election.
"Oh, I don't think the site of the convention means a lot," said Thomas M. Menino, Boston's three-term Democratic mayor who, along with Senator Edward M. Kennedy, spearheaded the drive to have the convention here. "The important thing is, What's the message? It's not so much about the convention itself, it's about the message that comes out of the convention about what the party stands for."
Then there is the message the world could get about Boston. The city, in contract negotiations with its public workers, is locked in increasingly contentious talks with the union representing 1,400 police officers. The union, forbidden to strike, is threatening to picket outside the convention, being held in the Fleet Center, turning the event into one grand platform for airing its grievances.
[When the city announced rules in early May for convention week protests, police union officials and civil libertarians called them an attempt to silence dissent.]
Mr. O'Connor said Democrats were optimistic that the labor troubles would be resolved before the opening gavel on July 26. Mayor Menino, sounding a more cautious note, would say only that he expected to have concluded most of the negotiations by then.
But Thomas J. Nee, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, warned that police unions from around the country had agreed to send uniformed officers to join in the picketing if the dispute was not over by then.
"We will be out in the street, there is no doubt about that," Mr. Nee said.
While police pickets are a possibility, commuter headaches are a certainty.
Security concerns will force the temporary closing of portions of I-93, a downtown artery running along one side of the Fleet Center, tying up traffic throughout the region. And because one of the city's main commuter rail links, North Station, lies just beneath the spot where Mr. Kerry will accept the nomination it also will be closed, adding to commuters' woes.
"For the players, the inside people, this is all very exciting, an incredible opportunity," said Ms. Feeney, the councilwoman. "But to the average citizen trying to get to work every day, it's a somewhat different story."
Some 35,000 people are expected to attend the July 26-29 event, including 5,000 delegates and alternates and 15,000 members of the news media.
A study by the Boston Redevelopment Authority's Office of Budget Management concluded that the four-day event will add $154.2 million to the regional economy. But another study, by the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University, found that the economy will suffer a net loss of more than $12 million after factoring in costs from the transportation inconveniences and the loss of other summer events, like the United States Olympic gymnastic trials, which was moved after the city was selected for the convention.
But the impact on the city will go well beyond any balance sheet, convention and city officials say. With a new convention center about to open across town from the Fleet Center, Boston officials hope to use the Democratic event as one vast promotion.
"It is a great opportunity for a city to showcase itself," Mr. O'Connor said.
Indeed, the opening-night parties — normally held at the hotels where the delegations are housed — will be scattered throughout the city's neighborhoods, in places like a bakery, a brewery, a bathhouse and historic homes, museums and parks, said Julie Burns, executive director of Boston 2004, the host committee.
Perhaps it is best that not all attention will be on the convention itself, because the image there is not entirely the one the city had hoped. The razing of a decrepit, elevated rail line is behind schedule, so conventioneers will have to pass beneath the rotting hulk to get inside the Fleet Center.
For all the problems and promise of the Boston convention, the perils it poses for Democrats may pale compared to those that Republicans face in New York, a campaign expert says.
"If you've got unions protesting outside the Boston convention while Democrats who are pro-union are inside, trying to dance around it, that's a bit of a nightmare," said Norman J. Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "And it could all come a cropper on the gay marriage issue, if there are gay marriages being performed outside during the convention. But actually, the downside risk is greater for the Republicans in New York if issues are raised about exploiting 9/11."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company |
