Has anyone ever done this? If so, what did you think of it?
No; state Convention a few times, but I’ve never wanted to go to the National one. Basically, the nominee is decided long before then, so nothing much to do but be an unpaid extra in the TV coverage, and party in the evenings. And I’d rather use my vacation time (and money*) on a more restful, enjoyable vacation.
- And it’s a lot of money. The Democratic one is in Philadelphia this time, a very expensive city. We were told recently that in training sessions for people seeking to be a national delegate, to makes sure they understand that the cost will be about $2,500 to $4,000 per person. And most delegates will have to cover that themself. Sometimes their local political districts will give them some help, or unions often give some help to their members who are national delegates, but most of the cost falls on the individual.
No, but I went to a county convention for the Democratic Party in Texas once and it was a major clusterfuck. I’m sure the Republican side of things is just as bad. No wonder regular people don’t want to get involved in party politics.
Why can’t they be paid?
There are enough people that want to do it that are reliable enough that will do it without being paid.
That was the experience of someone I talked to and her husband who went to the DNC in Los Angeles in I think 2000. Alot of money to listen to the same speel about how great Al Gore was. They said they paid about $2,000 to attend a Barbera Streisdand concert and she only sang maybe 4 or 5 songs and spent the rest of the time talking.
Umm… well maybe. But remember that each party is all about appearances in front of the camera and they want to always show diversity and people going to the extreme to show their party loyalty (meaning goofy hats and such). So certain people will get some help so they can be the “face” of the party in front of the cameras.
I was told that behind the cameras its a totally different thing.
No idea what a modern convention is like, but my father was a precinct judge and local Republican party chairman for many years. He represented the state at the 1984(Dallas) and 1992(Houston) conventions. He took my older brother along in '92 to be a page and my brother made some good pocket money running errands for delegates.
It didn’t break us, but it was fairly expensive even then. No idea what it is in today’s even much more mass media based world. 1992 was a LONG time ago in convention timescales.
Enjoy,
Steven
In a previous life, I lived in Utah. Utah has a grass roots election process. You meet at a neighbor’s house. And one or two people are elected to attend the county convention. And choices for the primary election are voted on there.
From there you may be elected to the state convention. And you vote to select the candidates for the primary election at the state level.
I did the above many times. One year I was doing research in Bethesda, MD and the Demo convention was in DC. I really wanted to attend the convention. But, to get elected to the National Convention required spending money for campaign material in order to win. Which I did not have.
This process was many years ago. I don’t know if Utah still does this. But, I really enjoyed it. Us common folk actually determined who would appear on the primary ballot.
a niece went to the Charlotte Dem convention in 2012 as a delegate but she only had to travel around 60 miles . I don’t know if she drove back home every night , she probably did to avoid paying for a hotel room.
They could be – if someone had a spare half-million dollars to do so (for our state).
But party donors won’t do this; they want their donations to be spent in winning elections. And the Party Executive Committee won’t put the money into the budget for this; all those party leaders have local elections in their areas that they see as better places to invest extra funds.
Some delegates do get help from their employer or their union, and often local party units hold fundraiser parties to help the delegates out. But those typically raise a couple hundred bucks. So the delegates pay 90-95% of the cost themself.
Well the democrats must be helping some people because I’ve read a big portion of their delegates are teachers and they arent exactly rich.
Teachers often receive assistance from fellow teachers at their school, and sometimes even from their union. They still pay a lot out of their own pocket.