Clark County Democratic Convention follow-up

An email from Clark County Democratic Party Chairman John Hunt regarding our aborted convention a week ago:

My Fellow Clark County Democrats:

First of all I want to personally apologize for what happened on Saturday February 23. I will do a better job on the next go round. I apologize for not having the vision and not mobilizing the resources to successfully complete a job of that magnitude.

I also want to congratulate all the other Counties and especially the County leaders and volunteers. I know how hard your task was and you are all to be congratulated for a job well done.

I do want everyone to know some of the facts about our convention. We had over two hundred volunteers, including fifty registration stations with two volunteers working at each station. Registration was open Friday February 22 from 4:00 until approximately 10:00 PM, and on Saturday from 8:00 AM until Noon. The total number of delegates and alternates elected at the January 19th Caucus was just over 7000. The total number of delegates, alternates, and guests registered as of noon Saturday was approximately 6974.

Bally’s Event Center with chairs could seat 5000; without chairs it could hold 7500 plus. The room was too small and again for that I apologize.

According to Bally’s Security at one time there approximately 12,500 attendees in the hotel that were either in the Event Center or in line. During Saturday morning Interstate 15 was almost shut down. It took some attendees 45 minutes or more to exit I-15, and thousands could not find parking spaces. A fair estimate of the total number of Democrats who tried to attend the convention is probably between 20,000 and 25,000. Both campaigns did auto and personal calls to all their supporters who attended the January 19th Caucus and encouraged them to come to Bally’s in hopes of becoming an alternate if they were not elected as delegates. I understand why they did that. We just could not handle the response, and again I apologize.

Almost 25,000 Democrats showing support for their candidate must be counted as a positive sign of the energy and commitment permeating our Party. Truly the next person in the White House will be a Democrat!

For the past two days, I have met with the heads of each campaign, our State Chair and our Executive Director Travis Brock to develop a plan to get this job done right. Lastly, I want to thank each of you, who have offered your help and continued participation. It is greatly appreciated.

John A. Hunt, Chairman
Clark County Democratic Party
Friday, February 29, 2008

The turnout truly was amazing... hopefully people will remain committed and show up when the convention re-convenes to elect delegates to the state convention!