Bloomberg's Carnival

By Meredith O'Brien, The Center for Public Integrity. Posted August 27, 2004.

President Bush will accept his party's nomination in New York City at the Republican National Convention, an event that will cost an estimated $166 million. In addition to the tens of thousands of patriotically themed balloons, Republicans asked for and received millions of dollars worth of phone lines, computers, high-tech gadgets, automobiles and parties, many of them paid for by special interests that had, in the past, contributed soft money to the Republican National Committee.

The largesse comes at a time when political conventions are attracting fewer and fewer viewers. Ratings for July's four-day Democratic convention on the three major networks, as well as on cable news stations Fox News, MSNBC and CNN "hit an all-time low," Entertainment Weekly reported.

Despite spending an estimated $95 million to throw the Democratic National Convention in Boston – the final tab won't likely be known for months – the event did little to change the dynamics of what still appears to be a close presidential election, especially among the crucial undecided voters. In the first national polls taken just after John Kerry accepted the Democratic nomination for president in his hometown, there was precious little, if any, bounce detected. Surveys conducted by various media organizations showed everything from what Newsweek called a "baby bounce" in his lead over Bush (up four points, the smallest post-convention bounce in the history of the magazine's poll), to what the Gallup organization saw as an actual five-point loss among likely voters, despite day after day of glowing adjectives being lavished on Kerry's image in front of a crowd of 15,000 journalists in the FleetCenter in Boston.

Many pundits have argued that the election results won't really be affected by the nominating conventions at all, but instead will hinge on the debates this fall between Kerry and Bush. Though presidential nominating conventions may no longer move poll numbers up, the price tag for the events shoots ever upward. According to a study by the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign Finance Institute, which tracks the escalating costs of presidential campaigns, spending for these four-day convention productions has grown, even if the impact of the conventions on the final election results is diminishing. "In a sense, the [convention] committees are building the stage props for a television production, with the costs going up even as hours of major network television coverage and average audience ratings have skidded," CFI analysts wrote in a July 2004 study.

As Senator Joe Biden, D-Del., made his way home from Boston, he remarked to The Boston Globe, "Maybe I've been to too many of these things, but two days would do it." Similar sentiments were uttered four years ago after the Democratic convention in Los Angeles wrapped up. "We ought to consider the possibility of shortening it," then-House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt told The Wall Street Journal.

But cutting down – or even eliminating – the number of days of the national conventions would put a damper on the special interest parties slated for the weeks of the Democratic and Republican conventions. Lobbyists, businesses and interest groups hoping to make a pitch or build relationships with policy makers planned hundreds of private parties held during the Democratic convention in Boston and slated for the Republican convention in New York City. Though the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 – better known as McCain-Feingold – banned unlimited cash donations to parties (known as soft money), special interests still can write large checks to a party's convention host committees, or throw elaborate bashes for the party leaders themselves. Or both.

"Companies like to be part of the democratic process of our country," Darrell Henry, the American Gas Association's government relations director told The Los Angeles Times. "It gives us exposure, and we get to be involved in the biggest political event of the season." The group is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on parties at the Democratic and Republican conventions this year.

The senators and congressmen who are feted at convention week events like AGA's parties are often specifically invited for their areas of expertise and their committee assignments. In New York City, the AGA has teamed up with other energy interests, like the Edison Electric Institute and the National Mining Association, to throw a "Texas Honky-Tonk Salute" for Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The same groups are throwing "The Wildcatters Ball" at Rockefeller Plaza for Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, according to media reports.

The Boston Herald estimated that some $20 million was spent in Boston alone on these private receptions. At least 50 parties costing $100,000 or more have been slated for both conventions, according to Broadcasting & Cable.

On top of the lavish parties, private groups are getting around the campaign finance regulations by pouring unlimited amounts of money into the committees hosting the conventions, technically designated as charitable, civic booster organizations by the Federal Election Commission. These groups don't have to reveal the names or contribution amounts of their donors.

Meredith O'Brien was a co-author of The Buying of the President (Avon, 1996), and last wrote for the Center on the Democratic Convention. Agustin Armendariz contributed to this report.

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from Election 2004! Sign up now »