Joe Turnham: Chance to nominate president an awesome obligation

Joe Turnham
Guest Columnist
Published: August 4, 2008

No experience or responsibility as party chairman can compare with the awesome obligation to coordinate a state’s participation in selecting a nominee for the Presidency of the United States.
Both Republican Chairman Mike Hubbard and I are also delegation chairs for our respective parties, meaning we have added responsibilities.

Planning the logistics, raising the funds and executing multiple meetings, parties and events in a city hundreds of miles from home requires months of planning and consumes hundreds of hours of staff time at the party office. A party must plan and execute a presidential convention, all while preparing for a huge November General Election. Party resources and personalities can get stretched.

However, it is a humbling responsibility to be a living part in making American history through the presidential convention. Having a candidate like Sen. Barack Obama as your nominee means millions of new people and energy come to the tasks at hand. The Thursday night acceptance speech has been moved to Invesco Field where more than 76,000 people will join Alabama in hearing Obama accept our nomination. Such events are almost unprecedented in scope and magnitude and require intricate planning.

Over 250 Alabamians will travel to Denver as part of our delegation. Joining the 69 official delegates and alternates will be many elected officials, sponsors, county chairs and college students.

Alabama will host delegation breakfasts and will hold afternoon and evening events in multiple venues across Denver.

Alabama will join Kentucky and Ohio for a joint celebration on Monday night. Alabama will share hotel space with Georgia and North Dakota.

We will have an official caucus session each morning where credentials and delegation votes will be taken. Expect celebrity-watching to be a favorite delegate past time.

The best part of a convention is the energy, excitement and sense of purpose you feel upon arrival. The fellowship of the political faithful is not only fun, but enlightening. The political gossip and speculation of the campaign and hopeful victory has many potential suitors for political jobs and appointments networking throughout the city. Much party planning will go on informally in private conversations and casual meetings.

Over 10,000 members of the international press corps, including about a dozen Alabama press, will be there to cover the happenings of the 4,000 delegates. For the first time ever, Alabama will have official bloggers as part of our delegation. I look forward to blogging with readers of the Opelika-Auburn News about my experiences. Small political and human interest stories will be uncovered throughout the week of August 24-29.

Both Chairman Hubbard and I will get lots of requests that we cannot fill. The requests and the logistical hurdles will keep us and our staffs working 16 to 18 hours each day. Chairs are often the complaint and customer service department. The planning and management of the national convention is akin to running a political Olympics. Multiple events at multiple venues overlaid with security, transportation and credential considerations are an exercise in mass planning and execution. In Denver, over 10,000 local volunteers are part of the party fabric to make this convention happen.

The Denver Convention will be my second convention. I was Chairman of the Alabama Party and Delegation in 1996 for the renomination of Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Hopefully, Alabama will be part of another winning team in Denver.

While the alphabetically gifted State of Alabama will be the first to go to the microphone to place a name into nomination, I will most likely get the honor of deferring that right to the state of our nominee.

But for one gleaming moment, the world’s eyes will be on Alabama. Cheers to the great state of Alabama!

Joe Turnham is Chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party.