Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Enthusiasm gap extends to conventions

WE'VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com

Here's another sign that Democrats are much more enthusiastic about their nominee and their party than the Republicans. In April, we reported that the Democrats in Denver had a big problem: Too many volunteers:

As many as 25,000 have registered to volunteer during the Convention.

As a result of the large volunteer base, some early decisions have been made:
  • Most volunteers will be assigned to work a maximum of four hours during the convention. For out-of-state volunteers, it's important to weigh travel and housing costs prior to making such a commitment.
That's right, Denver only needs volunteers to work 4 hours the entire week, in order to give everyone a chance to volunteer.

The GOP should only have such problems:
The MSP 2008 Host Committee announced today (Monday, June 9) that it has signed up almost 4,000 of the 10,000 volunteers needed for the Convention. Volunteer applications will be accepted through the end of June.
...
“The eyes of the nation will be upon us in September and we are looking for help from Minnesotans to make this Convention memorable for the 45,000 people expected to come to Minneapolis and Saint Paul,” said Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak. “It is time to roll out the red carpet and show our guests the type of hospitality that Minnesotans are famous for.”
- RNCC Press Release
The GOP has signed up 4,000 volunteers through early June. The Democrats had 25,000 volunteers in April. Incredible.

So for our GOP friends, go show Minneapolis mayor and Democratic Convention add-on superdelegate R.T. Rybak some love, and go volunteer. (h/t 2008 GOP Convention Report)

3 comments:

bg said...

I think that says something about the democrat's commitment to their values. It's incredible that someone would travel across states just to come help out. The trick will be translating this enthusiasm into votes come November.

David Jarvis said...

I believe it fully. Obama's campaign out here said basically if you hadn't volunteered before, we won't need you for the PDX mega rally a few weeks ago. Given how many volunteers must have been there, that says a lot.

Independent Voter said...

HA!!!!!!! How funny is that.....next thing is they are going to ask their volunteers to work overtime.