Florida delegates scrounging for Denver hotels

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With all the political debate about Florida and Michigan, there are convention logistics that are very interesting. When the DNCC assigned hotel rooms in Denver to the delegations last November, Florida and was left out, and Michigan lost its hotel rooms at the Red Lion Inn in early January.

Now, we wrote in November:

An emailer notes that the Grand Hyatt, where the Colorado delegation, and as of now only the Colorado delegation, is staying, is a large hotel, and has lots of rooms left over after the Colorado rooms are set aside.

Well, Florida delegates are not waiting to be assigned official hotel rooms:

They insist they're traveling to the Democratic National Convention in Denver come August, but Florida's Democratic delegates may never have a chance to take a seat in the Pepsi Center much less get a nearby hotel room. Democratic delegates were selected in a series of local congressional-district caucuses today, despite the fact that Florida Democrats have been banned from participating in their national convention.

The Democratic National Committee last year voted to yank Florida's delegates after the state broke party rules by changing the date of its state primary to precede Super Tuesday. Michigan's delegates suffered the same fate. If anyone doubted the party's intention to stick to its decision, they needed only look at the roster of Denver hotels recently assigned to each state by convention organizers.

The list, posted on the Democratic National Committee's convention Web site, lists hotels for every state except Florida and Michigan. So does that mean the delegates will be taking reservations at a roadside Motel 6 or at some distant ski resort?

David Dew, chairman of the Martin County Democratic Party, said the delegates are aware of the hotel issue and started booking their rooms wherever they could immediately after today's caucus. "We're making reservations out there right now," he said. "Nobody's had any problems yet."

This is rather surprising - all the good hotel rooms in Denver should be under contract to the DNCC. The DNCC Housing office is responsible for assigning hotels to delegates, media, and just about everyone else associated with the convention. I'd love to know what hotels are taking reservations for these Florida delegates.