| So today, I called the phone number listed on the website. I stated my question and, after being grilled about whether I was with the media (uhm, no -- I'm a Denver resident, and a citizen of the blogosphere, posting at Daily Kos and Square State), I was passed on to someone in the press relations department (which leads to the additional question: why would it matter if I was with the media if I was going to the press liaison anyway?).
The gentleman I spoke to explained that www.demconvention.com -- the "Official 2008 Democratic Convention Website" -- was legally prevented from having a "contribute" link on their site; there's another website where one can make on-line contributions to the host committee: Democratic National Convention --
Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee
So I asked: OK, if you are prevented from fund raising on "The Official 2008 Democratic Convention" site, could you not provide a link to the host committee site donation page?
I was told that was also illegal.
Yet another WTF moment.
OK, so how about you just have a link, not to the donation page of the host committee, but a link to the home page? Anything illegal about that?
The gentlemen was unsure -- it seemed to be something they hadn't even considered linking to on the "Official 2008 Democratic Convention Website" (and, uhm, another stupid girl question but, isn't the host committee a pretty fucking major part of the Official Democratic National Convention? I know, I know -- I'm just a girl).
I also pointed out that it was really, really bad form to have the "information" e-mail send out auto-replies that say "out of office" in the re line, and inside the message state that they are much, much too busy to reply to e-mails requesting information.
Oh, and to get even more confusing, if one googles "denver democratic national convention", one will come up with yet another website: Democratic National Convention - 2008 DNC Denver Info & forums -- I think this one is run by the DNC (that's my assumption, as there's a place to donate to the DNC -- but not an option to donate to the host committee). However, at least they do have a link to the host committee site.
So there we have it: the Democrats are herding cats. Three separate websites for one convention, each "official" in its own very special way.
If you want to make an on-line donation to the Host Committee -- you know, to make us locals look good -- you don't go to the "official" 2008 Democratic National Convention web site. You go here.
I'll clean this up and post it on dKos tomorrow. Anyone else have any input? Like, perhaps, an explanation of what election law would prevent the "Official 2008 Democratic Convention" site from assisting the host committee in fundraising?
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