Convention Perks Lure Big Corporate Donors

June 17, 2008— -- The host committees for the Democratic and Republican national conventions are using the promise of VIP perks and access to help them rake in nearly $100 million to subsidize what some campaign finance watchdogs have termed "the biggest and longest political ad of the presidential campaign."

Both convention host committees have distributed detailed sponsorship packets describing a whole slew of perks and privileges, including access to politicians, that corporate sponsors can expect to enjoy, including "presidential" and "platinum" level sponsorship levels.

The Denver host committee has billed the Democratic National Convention a "once-in-a century" opportunity [click here] for corporate sponsors to reach tens of thousands of attendees, including "232 Members of Congress," and "51 Senators" and "28 governors."

A $1,000,000 contribution [click here] to the Denver host committee buys the highest level of sponsorship at the convention, including "first consideration" for booking rooms at the convention hotels and reserving "premier Denver venue space" for hospitality receptions. Donors who shell out $250,000 or more will receive special invites to private events with Colorado governor Bill Ritter, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, US Senator Ken Salazar and other Democratic elected officials.

The Minneapolis-Saint Paul host committee touts a similar package of perks for the Republican convention. A top-level contribution of $5 million [click here] gets a donor "luxury level seats" for each convention session, preferred booking for 20 hotel rooms, and more than 200 tickets for "VIP donor" and other host committee events. Corporations donating between $50,000 and $1 million will also receive special invitations to events with a block of tickets depending on the contribution level.

Steve Weissman of the Campaign Finance Institute, a non-partisan watchdog group, says that the host committees were originally intended to be bipartisan vehicles for promoting the convention host cities, but have essentially evolved into fundraising extensions for the political parties. In a recent report [click here], the group found numerous examples of partisan elected officials taking the lead in fundraising efforts.