Figure in 30 days or so we’ll know if the Democrats are coming to Uptown in 2012. And on balance I think the midterm election has helped Charlotte’s chances.
Cleveland is right out if it was ever in it. After both a lack-luster Obama rally in Cleveland the other day and John Kasich taking the governor’s race, forget it. The DNC is scared of Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, don’t think there will be much if any interest in trying to boost Obama to a second-term in Pawlenty’s backyard.
However. There is already a meme in the wild that Tuesday was the result of Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine bending the DNC machine too closely to the “blue dogs” — ie, the South — instead of riding even further to the Left with organized labor. To the extent the Dems pursue this line of thinking that clearly sets up a Charlotte vs. St. Louis line of battle. If Kaine loses his job and is otherwise scape-goated for the midterm, that elevates labor-heavy St. Louis, which I’ve long thought is the only real competition for CLT.
Charlotte’s convention boosters have already had to try to prove that the city is organized labor-friendly enough to host the party of organized labor. Expect more surprises and twists there in the weeks ahead even if this get-Kaine movement dies out. (And frankly who knows what will go on while the White House is in India. Seriously.)
But the big picture remains that North Carolina has a female Dem governor, a female Dem senator, and only lost one incumbent congressman on Tuesday. Charlotte still has two Democratic congressmen — Larry Kissell’s win being something of a bright spot — a young, black Democratic mayor and a raft of long-serving and powerful state legislators. This reality along with Duke Energy and Bank of America, argues very well for Charlotte.
What is really interesting, however, is the chance that the GOP tide has made potential corporate donors to Charlotte’s DNC push a little gun shy. We’ve been told all along that $40m. in private money would be needed to put on Obamafest 2012 in Uptown.
After Tuesday, is there still a rush to write that check?
