Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Sun editorial:

Convention mess

Democrats should have been prepared for the turnout that swamped their meeting

After watching the overwhelming interest in this year’s presidential election, the Clark County Democratic Party’s failure to properly plan for its convention Saturday was a disaster.

The purpose of the convention is to elect delegates to this spring’s state party convention, which sends delegates to the national convention in Denver that will nominate the Democratic presidential nominee. But the Democrats’ Clark County convention had to be postponed after county party officials were unprepared for the turnout.

At the Jan. 19 statewide presidential caucus more than 7,000 delegates were elected to attend the county’s convention, but county party officials expected that, as in years past, a large number of delegates would fail to show up. So they booked a room at Bally’s that would fit only 5,000 people.

But this is no ordinary year, and county party officials knew that. Democrats flooded Bally’s. There were more than 6,000 people in the hall when the fire marshal stepped in and ordered the doors shut. The crowd outside the hall was estimated at 4,000 people.

People attending the convention found long lines, mass confusion and problems everywhere. Many would-be delegates said the county party didn’t have them registered, alternate delegates were frustrated by a lack of information on the process, and the lack of organization created a fiasco when it came time to vote. As a result, the state representatives for presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama agreed to postpone the voting.

The county party’s failure is stunning. The turnout should have been no surprise. The statewide presidential caucus attracted more than 117,000 people, with more than 77,000 of those from Clark County.

County Democratic leaders had a chance to learn from the state caucus, which experienced some organizational problems, but instead they invited problems. One would think the Clark County Democratic Party would do all it can to tap people’s incredible enthusiasm for this year’s Democratic presidential candidates, not take steps that end up leaving those at the grass-roots level disenchanted. The county party’s failures are disgraceful.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy