...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...
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...
Last week, the
U.S. Senate voted 95-4 for a measure that would end public funding for both parties’ national nominating conventions, adopting an amendment from Oklahoma Republican
Tom Coburn.
Coburn has argued that it’s hypocritical for lawmakers to spend public money on their party conventions after criticizing the
General Services Administration for spending $823,000 on a 2010 conference near Las Vegas...
In April, representatives of the major U.S. unions, including the AFL-CIO, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the
United Auto Workers, were given a tour of the convention sites in Charlotte as Democratic officials prepared to ask them to help cover their funding shortfall.
Labor organizations have been reluctant to contribute to the convention because Charlotte lacks unionized hotels and is in a state where compulsory union membership or the payment of dues is prohibited as an employment condition...
