Duke Energy Loan for Democrats' Convention Remains Unpaid

When Duke Energy extended a $10 million line of credit to the committee organizing the Democratic convention in Charlotte, N.C., last summer, it seemed to be a sign that President Obama would not make good on his pledge to keep his party’s nominating festivities free of corporate favor banking.

The money would have to be paid back, organizers said.

Except that so far, it hasn’t been. The Los Angeles Times reports that the loan remains outstanding, with just a couple of weeks left until it is due to be paid back.

Democrats acknowledged over the summer that the president’s pledge had set a very high bar and that without corporate giving, they were having a hard time coming up with enough small-donor financing to fill the void. And the host committee had already begun to break the pledge by setting up a nonprofit corporation to collect corporate dollars for events outside of the convention hall – like a big welcome party for the news media showcasing Charlotte businesses and a Labor Day festival.

But the nonprofit corporation – called New American City and financed by companies including Duke and Bank of America – wound up paying $5 million for the convention hall itself at the Time Warner Cable Arena, as The Charlotte Observer reported last fall.

The newspaper also caught the first warning sign that the committee would default on the line of credit, noting that Duke had listed it as a loss in its third-quarter report.

Tom Williams, a spokesman for Duke, said that the loss of $10 million was recorded as an accounting requirement and that the company was still hopeful the committee would repay the full loan before it comes due Feb. 28. “We still hope there’s some chance to recover part or all of that money in some fashion,” he said. But, he acknowledged, a company generally counts a loss on a loan “when you think there’s a real likelihood it may not be repaid.”

With a default, the loan would effectively become a donation — a fairly large one given that the total budget for the convention was roughly $31 million.

The Democratic National Committee had no comment.

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Protests Continue on Final Night of Democratic Convention

12:01 a.m. | Updated CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Five days of marches at the Democratic National Convention brought confrontation and compromise between protesters and the police, and there was a bit of both on Thursday, the final night of the convention.

As delegates packed Time Warner Cable Arena to hear President Obama’s acceptance speech, a crowd of about 100 protesters marched from their “Occupy the D.N.C.” encampment in a nearby park to the streets a few blocks from the arena, holding signs, chanting and at times sitting down in the middle of intersections.

They never got near the crowds gathered inside the fences that surrounded the arena. And from the moment they left Marshall Park, protesters were buffered on either side by rows of police officers using bicycles as barricades. The police eventually followed them back to the park, but there were no confrontations and no immediate word of any arrests.

A group of protesters later burned copies of the presidential oath of office before returning to the camp.

“It’s been a learning experience,” said John Murdock of New York, a member of the Occupy Wall Street movement who participated in the marches in Charlotte. “We’ve got to evolve.”

“Are we effective at this point? No, we’re outnumbered and easily mocked.”

That’s one of the messages he will deliver when he returns to New York and participates in the Sept. 17 one-year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

In Charlotte, there was a sense of accomplishment on both sides.

“I’ve been very pleased the entire week,” said Michael Zytkow, an Occupy Charlotte organizer. “The eyes of the political universe are on Charlotte, and regular people stood up and proved the convention is really on the streets.”

The five days of protests resulted in 25 arrests, including 10 on Thursday.

“I think it’s gone very well,’’ said Rodney Monroe, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police chief, as he walked ahead of the protesters. “I think everyone has been doing a great deal of communication and organizing with one another to clearly understand what each’s intent has been throughout the week, and I think we’ve been able to accomplish each of our goals. I’m happy with that.”

The thousands that were projected to come here did not materialize. Still, there were protesters from across the country on site, and enough marches and protests to make a statement, if not a mark, on this convention.

Through the convention, no two companies were targeted more than Bank of America and Duke Energy, which have their headquarters in Charlotte.

Protesters began on Sunday when more than 90 groups combined for the Coalition to March on Wall Street South, the name given to Charlotte because it is the No. 2 financial services center in the country behind New York. The police estimated 800 protesters that day, though organizers said the number was higher. There were two arrests on Sunday, but only one was a protester.

There have been few clashes with the police along the way, though on Tuesday, the first day of the convention, about 200 protesters were blocked from marching for about two hours before being allowed to proceed. There were 13 arrests that day, including 10 undocumented Hispanic immigrants who sat in the middle of an intersection and refused to move.

No arrests were made on Wednesday.

The police confirmed six were arrested on Thursday afternoon and charged with impeding traffic after they sat in an intersection in front of the Duke Energy Center, a few blocks from the convention site. Four more were arrested in two other incidents.

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Elizabeth Warren takes stage in coveted convention slot

CHARLOTTE – Four years ago, at his 14th Democratic National Convention, Sen. Edward Kennedy delivered his last speech. "We have never lost our belief that we are all called to a better country and a better world," he told delegates.

By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY

Elizabeth Warren, candidate for Senate from Massachusetts, addresses the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night in Charlotte.

By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY

Elizabeth Warren, candidate for Senate from Massachusetts, addresses the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night in Charlotte.

Wednesday night, at her first convention, Elizabeth Warren sought to claim Kennedy's mantle — and his Senate seat — saying she's ready to answer the call.

In her distinctive rhetorical style, the Democratic Senate candidate from Massachusetts twice said the middle class was being "hammered." She said the system is "rigged" three times, and argued for a "level playing field" five times.

Warren is looking to dislodge Sen. Scott Brown from the Senate seat that Brown won after Kennedy's death in 2009. A prime-time speech leading into a former president would be a coveted slot for any first-time Senate candidate, and Warren herself noted that it was her first Democratic convention.

"I sure never dreamed that I'd be the warm-up act for President Bill Clinton— an amazing man who had the good sense to marry one of the coolest women on this planet," she said over chants of "Warren! Warren!"

As Warren led into Clinton, Wednesday night's prime-time speakers bridged two wings of the Democratic Party— Kennedy-like northeastern liberals and Clinton's southern, more moderate "New Democrats."

Warren represents the new liberal wing of the Democratic Party, a champion of gender equity and gay rights, but who is best known for taking on banks and Wall Street. As an expert in bankruptcy law, she fought credit card companies and was the architect of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In her speech, Warren gave President Obama credit for the agency, saying he stood up to an "army of lobbyists" that tried to kill the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. And she noted that the new consumer bureau just had its first major enforcement action, a $210-million settlement with Capital One for what the government said were deceptive practices.

Taking a shot at GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, she said none of the small business owners she has met earned money from "risky Wall Street bets that brought down our economy." And "not one of them — not one — stashes their money in the Cayman Islands to avoid paying their fair share of taxes."

Warren herself provided the rhetorical groundwork for Obama's now-famous "You didn't build that" remark more than a year ago. "There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody," she said in a viral YouTube video in 2010.

Wednesday, she said Americans "don't resent that someone else makes more money."

"We're Americans," Warren said. "We celebrate success. We just don't want the game to be rigged."

The Massachusetts contest is one of 33 races that will decide control of the Senate, and one of the most hotly contested. Democrats now control 51 seats, though two independents also caucus with them.

Brown, Warren's opponent in the Massachusetts race, noted that Warren's speech failed to give him credit for voting in favor of Dodd-Frank — giving the bill a filibuster-proof margin needed to pass the Senate.

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Democrats' convention fundraising hindered by rules, unions

WASHINGTON – With just weeks to spare, the leaders of the Democratic convention are chasing last-minute contributions to fund the political gala aimed at boosting President Obama's re-election bid. Their efforts are hampered, in part, by Obama's decision to limit direct corporate contributions and a refusal by some unions to donate to this summer's event in Charlotte.

By Chuck Burton, AP

Steve Law works on a luxury box at Time Warner Cable Arena — where the majority of the Democratic National Convention will be held — in Charlotte on July 16.

By Chuck Burton, AP

Steve Law works on a luxury box at Time Warner Cable Arena — where the majority of the Democratic National Convention will be held — in Charlotte on July 16.

Organizers of the Republican National Convention, meanwhile, say they also are collecting money but are well on their way toward hitting their goal of raising roughly $55 million as companies, such as Hewlett-Packard and Coca-Cola help underwrite the Aug. 27-30 Republican National Convention in Tampa where Mitt Romney will accept his party's nomination.

In a sharp departure from previous conventions, Democrats have banned checks from corporations or political action committees for the convention and have imposed a $100,000 cap on donations from individuals.

Those restrictions have made it harder to collect contributions, said Ken Eudy, who runs a Raleigh marketing company and serves on Charlotte's host committee. Democrats have set a $36.6 million fundraising goal for the Sept. 3-6 convention.

In a year when presidential candidates, super PACs and an array of other politicians down the ballot are scrambling for campaign cash, a convention "is at the bottom of the political food chain," said Eudy, who hosted a convention fundraiser last week attended by North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue and other top Democrats in the state. "It's very difficult to raise this money."

Making fundraising harder: Some labor unions have announced they will not help underwrite the Democrats' gathering in North Carolina, choosing instead to direct their money to get-out-the-vote efforts. Four years ago, unions accounted for five of the top 10 organizational donors to the Democrats' convention in Denver, according to a tally by the non-profit Campaign Finance Institute.

"We feel that a better use of our members' money would be spent on grassroots mobilization efforts this election cycle," Jim Spellane, a spokesman for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said in an e-mail. In 2008, the union donated more than $1 million to help stage the Denver convention.

Last month, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka announced the union would not make any "major monetary" contributions to the convention. Instead, the group plans an Aug. 11 rally in Philadelphia to promote labor issues.

Officials with both Tampa and Charlotte host committees refuse to say how much they have raised or provide a comprehensive list of donors. They are not required to provide a public accounting to federal regulators until Oct. 15 — more than six weeks after the conventions have ended.

"We've achieved every milestone we have set," Kenneth Jones, an executive at a Tampa private-equity firm who runs the Republican host committee, told USA TODAY this week. The Republicans have not imposed restrictions on corporate giving.

"We're on track," said Tom Williams, a spokesman for Duke Energy, whose CEO Jim Rogers serves as co-chairman of the Charlotte host committee.

Officials with the Democratic Party tout the decision to limit corporate contributions as evidence of Obama's commitment to limit the influence of special interests. And Dan Murrey, the host committee's executive director, said the emphasis on smaller donations has boosted grass-roots giving. The convention already has received contributions "from nearly 65 times more individuals" than four years ago, he said.

Even so, there are ways around the ban on corporate giving. Democrats are accepting in-kind contributions, such as computer and telephone equipment, from for-profit companies for official convention activities.

In addition, the host committee is using a parallel fundraising account, New American City Inc., to accept unlimited corporate funds. Organizers say those funds will pay for expenses outside of the official convention events, such as welcoming parties for journalists and convention delegates.

Party officials say they have no say over how the host committee raises money through the New American City account. "The Democratic convention has gone further than any convention in history to reform the way conventions are funded," said Joanne Peters, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Convention Committee. But the host committee "may raise money however it sees fit to promote Charlotte."

Conventions — splashy, made-for-TV affairs that kick off the fall presidential campaign — are expensive events, paid for with a combination of public and private funds.

Congress has set aside $100 million to provide security for both events. An additional $18 million in public money goes to each convention from the Federal Election Commission to help underwrite salaries, construction, entertainment and other officials convention activities. It's up to the host committees to collect the rest.

While an individual is barred from writing a check larger than $5,000 directly to a candidate for the primary and general election, federal law imposes no restrictions on what companies, individuals unions and foundations can give to host committees — which are treated as organizations promoting local communities rather than extensions of the candidates' campaigns.

Utility giant Duke Energy has emerged as one of the biggest players in the Charlotte convention. It has provided a $10 million line of credit to organizers and has given free office space to the host committee and the Democratic National Convention Committee. Rogers also has donated $100,000 personally.

The utility, which spent more than $6.3 million to lobby Congress and federal agencies last year, doesn't "expect any special treatment" in return for its largesse, said Williams, the Duke spokesman. "We're not in this for that."

"This is a way to showcase Charlotte in a way we never have before," he said. "When Charlotte is successful, Duke is successful."

Other companies helping underwrite convention include the Charlotte-based Bank of America; Time Warner Cable, a top sponsor of the media party in Charlotte; and Hewlett-Packard, which will provide computers and printers at both conventions, company spokesman Michael Thacker confirmed.

While a funding shortfall could force Democrats to divert campaign funds to the convention, it's unlikely to have a big impact on public perception or dampen delegates' enthusiasm, said Peter Ubertaccio, a political scientist at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass.

"When most people tune in," he said, "they will be completely unaware if the Democrats have not raised as much as they had hoped."

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Bill Clinton to Have Marquee Role at Democratic Convention

The prominent role of Mr. Clinton, which is scheduled to be announced on Monday, signals an effort by the Obama campaign to pull out all the stops to rally Democrats when they gather for their party’s national convention in Charlotte, N.C. An even more important audience will be the voters across the country who will see the address carried by television networks.

“There isn’t anybody on the planet who has a greater perspective on not just the last four years, but the last two decades, than Bill Clinton,” David Axelrod, a top strategist to the Obama campaign, said in an interview on Sunday. “He can really articulate the choice that is before people.”

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will appear on the final night of the convention, making the case for Mr. Obama before the largest audience of the week during an outdoor speech at the Bank of America Stadium. The vice president and Mr. Obama will appear together on stage before they accept the party’s nomination for a second term in the White House.

It is unusual in recent election cycles, although not without precedent, for the vice president not to get the stage to himself during a night at the convention. But in his speech, aides said, Mr. Biden is expected to remind Americans about the last four years and the administration’s accomplishments in a difficult economic climate.

The invitation for Mr. Clinton to be center stage at the convention signifies another milestone in the complicated and evolving relationship between the two presidents.

At the party’s convention in Denver four years ago, all eyes were on Mr. Clinton as he offered a full-throated endorsement of Mr. Obama in a speech that served as something of a truce after a contentious primary fight with his wife.

For Mr. Clinton, who has become one of the most popular figures in the Democratic Party, the speech will be among the most high-profile roles yet that he has assumed for Mr. Obama. The address is intended to offer a strong contrast with the Republican ticket and will be closely watched, particularly given a string of blunt statements — and retractions — that Mr. Clinton has made this year when talking about the Obama administration.

For example, Mr. Clinton called for temporarily extending all of the tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year, including the Bush-era rates, which put him at odds with the president. He later apologized for those comments, but not before the Republican National Committee seized on the controversy.

Cheney on ’08 Palin Choice

Dick Cheney said on Sunday that Sarah Palin was not ready in 2008 to be his successor as vice president and that Senator John McCain’s decision was “a mistake” that Mitt Romney should seek to avoid making in his own choice of running mate.

Speaking to ABC News in his first interview since undergoing a heart transplant in March, Mr. Cheney said Mr. McCain’s choice clearly reflected considerations other than Ms. Palin’s ability to serve as vice president.

Asked whether a presidential candidate should consider how well a vice-presidential nominee might appeal in a particular state or to a demographic group, Mr. Cheney said, “Those are important issues, but they should never be allowed to override that first proposition.”

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Senator McCaskill to Skip Democratic Convention

One would think that a nominating convention is a command performance for prominent members of a president’s party.

But that is not the case for vulnerable Democrats running in districts where President Obama is less than popular. Senator Claire McCaskill on Tuesday became the latest Democrat to decide to skip the party’s national convention in Charlotte, N.C., later this summer.

Ms. McCaskill, who campaigned actively for Mr. Obama in 2008, is fighting for a second term in a state leaning toward Mitt Romney in the polls and where three potential Republican challengers are all seeking Tea Party support.

A campaign aide said that Ms. McCaskill, of Missouri, has not attended a national convention in those years that she is on the ballot, most recently in 2004 when she ran for governor. The aide repeated the mantra of all candidates who choose to skip a splashy convention with all the hoopla – Ms. McCaskill thinks it’s more important to talk to voters.

This week, three leading Democrats from West Virginia – Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, Senator Joe Manchin III and Representative Nick J. Rahall II – said they would also miss the convention this September, according to the state’s Democratic Party. All three are up for re-election in November.

Mr. Obama is deeply unpopular in West Virginia, where last month a protest candidate, a federal prison inmate, won 40 percent of the vote in the Democratic presidential primary.

In a statement Mr. Tomblin said he felt “that his time is best spent working in West Virginia to move our state forward instead of attending a four-day political rally in North Carolina.’’

In western Pennsylvania, another battleground region, Representative Mark Critz said he, too, would take a pass on the Democratic National Convention. It is more important, he said, “to spend my time in western Pennsylvania listening to the people about how we can create jobs for the region.’’

But Democrats are not the only party-skippers. Representative Denny Rehberg, Republican of Montana, will not attend his party’s convention in Tampa in August, according to a report in The Hill this week. He intends to focus on his bid to unseat the state’s freshman Democratic Senator, Jon Tester, who is also reported to be skipping Charlotte.

Mr. Rehberg, Montana’s lone Congressman, has shown an independent streak before. He voted against President George W. Bush’s bailout of Wall Street in 2008 and against the House budget package crafted by Representative Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin.

In a political advertisement Mr. Rehberg describes himself as an independent thinker who “refuses to toe the party line.’’

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Occupy Movement Prepares for Democratic Convention

But as the grass begins to take root, so does a resilient Occupy Charlotte. A small group still meets regularly in the city, participating in targeted protests and planning for some critical dates already circled on the calendar: May 9, when the annual Bank of America shareholders meeting is held in Charlotte, and, more important, Sept. 3, when the Democratic National Convention comes to town.

Every four years, the political conventions become magnets for mass protests, but this year the Occupy movement has added an unpredictable element to the mix. In Charlotte, the movement has already shown its clout through hundreds of protesters in October who gathered to demonstrate against Bank of America and a resulting encampment on the lawn in front of old City Hall.

But the Occupy movement here has been beset by troubles.

There was infighting over leadership within the group at the start, and there were repeated public relations gaffes. A flag burning in December split the group, and undermined acceptance and support within a skeptical Charlotte community as well.

Occupy Charlotte’s encampment may have had the unintended effect of getting the authorities prepared for convention protests; officials began planning a series of ordinances to manage such demonstrations after Occupy began.

“To be honest with you,” said Robert E. Hagemann, the city attorney, “I’m not sure we would have thought to prohibit camping as part of our ordinances had Occupy not happened.”

On Jan. 23, the Democratic-controlled Charlotte City Council passed the ordinances, including a camping ban, on a 10-to-1 vote. A week later, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers crossed the street from their headquarters and arrested seven people on the way to dismantling the camp.

“We’re the second-largest financial services center in the country, so it didn’t take a rocket scientist to think that we would see the activity here as well,” Mayor Anthony Foxx said of the Occupy Charlotte movement. “But we’ve handled it, I think, as well or better than any community across the country.”

Not everyone would agree. Occupy Charlotte members said city officials tried to discredit the group, saying the protest movement had cost the police $447,000 to monitor during the encampment. Ken Davies, a Charlotte lawyer, sought a temporary restraining order to allow Occupy Charlotte to return to camp, but it was not granted. He is now seeking an injunction.

Occupy Charlotte members have continued to meet regularly and arrange smaller protests, including a recent daylong event outside a Bank of America branch in town. But without the camp, the number of active members has dwindled just as planning for the convention kicks into high gear.

“We’re definitely at our low point,” said Scottie Wingfield, 36, of Charlotte, an Occupy member. “I would say about 25, and when we started out, our first marches were 600, 700.”

“We have the spring shareholders meeting at Bank of America coming here in May, so I imagine we’ll have a lot of people wanting to participate in that,” she said. “And then of course the D.N.C. So I think participation will go back up.”

Bill Dobbs, a member of Occupy Wall Street’s press team, said there is continuing communication with Occupy Charlotte members as they plan bank and convention protests. And as many as 60 groups have signed on to join the Coalition to Protest at the D.N.C. In Florida, Occupy Tampa is involved in planning similar efforts for the Republican National Convention, which will be held there in August, but the group has had smaller protests than those in Charlotte and the city has proposed a “clean zone” limiting where demonstrations can be held.

In planning protests this time around, for the conventions, social media is likely to play a bigger role.

“I think there’s been a lot more inter-occupation communication as people got away from the encampments and starting getting online and establishing lines of communication across the country,” said Domenic Battistella, 34, of nearby Mooresville, an original member of Occupy Charlotte. “We’re going to be much more coordinated on a regional basis.”

Occupy Charlotte members recently met with Occupy protesters from throughout North Carolina to prepare for the convention and are planning to provide housing, food and other support for those who come from out of state. An Occupy Durham member is now helping the legal team in a potential challenge as Charlotte officials continue to hold off allowing groups to apply for permits to protest at the convention.

Michael Zytkow, 25, an Occupy Charlotte member, said the May 9 protest at the Bank of America meeting could draw Occupy members from as far as Michigan and Washington State, as well as labor groups, others protesting the bank’s foreclosures and environmental groups focused on the bank’s financing of the coal industry. Mr. Zytkow hopes the protest draws as many as 1,000 people, providing a test run for the convention and the city’s ability to control the demonstrations.

And how many will come for the convention?

“I’m guessing in the thousands upon thousands,” Mr. Zytkow said.

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Seeking more luxury suites, DNC might move Obama convention speech to stadium (Daily Caller)

With Democrats struggling to reach their $36.6 million fundraising target for the Democratic National Convention  in August, plans have emerged to move the event’s final day to the 74,000-seat stadium where the NFL’s Carolina Panthers play, reports the Charlotte Observer. That move will allow fundraisers to sell access to more luxury suites.

Democratic sources told Bloomberg News that Obama advisers are conscious of the political downside that could be associated with the move, but not because of the spectacle of a big-dollar cash grab. Party officials are instead concerned because Bank of America — one of the president’s most recent corporate whipping-boys — is the arenas named sponsor.

In October, Obama criticized the bank for its plan, which was later scrapped, to impose a $5 monthly fee on customers who use debit cards.

“People have been using financial regulation as an excuse to charge consumers more,” Obama complained on Oct. 6.

Charlotte businessman Cameron Harris, who is among the top fundraisers on the convention’s host committee, told the Observer that making Bank of America Stadium the site of Obama’s acceptance speech “was a possibility … from the very beginning.”

The committee is hamstrung by new fundraising restrictions, reportedly imposed by Obama himself, which prohibit them from accepting money from corporations and lobbyists.

But they still plan to raise up to $15 million in “in-kind” contributions from companies, and cash from wealthy individuals. The committee is also accepting unlimited funds from nonprofit organizations, including charitable foundations associated with the president’s corporate supporters.

Another member of the host committee, who spoke to the Observer on condition of anonymity, insisted that the Democrats will manage to meet their fundraising goals.

“Are they working hard and losing sleep over it? Yes,” the source said. “But they didn’t seem at all desperate. … I don’t have inside information, but I think they’re over halfway there, though.”

David is The Daily Caller’s executive editor. Follow him on Twitter

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