Convention hits delegate wallets
By Eun Kyung Kim, Gannett News Service
DENVER — He named his website “Denver Drew,” but “Donate to Drew” may have been more fitting.
Democratic convention delegate Drew Reisinger solicited $1,300 in online donations for his trip from Asheville, N.C., to Denver because he didn’t have the money to go otherwise.
Being a convention delegate may mean attending parties and hobnobbing with politicos and celebrities, but it also means digging deep into the pocketbook.
All delegates must pay for their own airfare, hotel rooms, meals and other expenses.
For Guam delegates, that means shelling out an average of $1,900 for airfare alone. They also must set aside a full day of travel that includes crossing the international dateline.
Convention delegates are usually party activists. Most must be elected to the positions and, once they arrive at the convention, they spend the week at caucus meetings or policy forums, listening to party leaders and candidate surrogates. That alone makes the cost of attending a convention worth it.
“I’m a political junkie,” said B.J. Cruz, former chief justice of Guam’s Supreme Court and an alternate delegate for the U.S. territory. “You come to these things just to be here, to be part of the excitement.”
But the high price attached to conventions convinced one Republican delegate to give up his spot to an alternate.
Larry Eastman of Hemet, Calif., said he began reconsidering his decision to attend the convention after the state Republican Party sent him a letter informing him he needed to pay $900 up-front for various miscellaneous expenses.
The retired Vietnam veteran figured that by the time he paid for his hotel room and an airplane ticket to St. Paul, the site of next week’s Republican gathering, he would have shelled out several thousand dollars.
“Last year, I would have done it. But this year, with the economy being what it is …” said Eastman, 65. “I probably would have been able to go, but whether I wanted to spend $3,000 right now was a decision I really didn’t want to make.”
For Reisinger, a 25-year-old field manager for the Obama campaign, the decision to run as a first-time delegate hinged on whether he could afford the trip, said his girlfriend, Katie McConville.
“It’s such a huge expense, but even before he was elected, there were people, local Democrats, who said, ‘If you get this, we’ll support you. We’d love to have the voice of western North Carolina there,” she said. “Once he got elected to be a delegate, he got that support.”
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eisinger, who said the Obama campaign prohibits him from speaking to reporters, created his website with the help of a friend. On the page, he breaks down his estimated expenses, the most costly being his $500 airline ticket.
“Representing you at the convention will be remembered as one of the greatest honors of my life,” he says on his website. “What I need from you now is your help and support.”
He reached his $1,300 goal shortly before leaving for Denver, although it’s likely he will have spent more than that by week’s end. Although he declined to comment, Reisinger acknowledged the extra expense would be worth it.
“This is a historic event,” he said.
