Democrats are quietly griping over the last minute decision by State Chairman John Wisniewski to move the party’s convention from the Tropicana in an effort to honor a labor dispute between the hotel and several labor unions.
“How did they just find out about (the dispute)?” asked one prominent Democrat. “Moving the convention two days out is going to cause a nightmare.”
Those are just the most recent complaints from party rank and file, some of whom already felt the convention had been underplayed, with little hype and even less advertising.
The convention comes just six weeks after the party scored a huge victory at the redistricting table, convincing the reapportionment commission’s 11th member to side with them on a map that should keep them in power in 2012 and beyond. But the party goodwill generated by the win is evaporating, some say, with bad decisions by the party poobahs.
“It looks like the map win is yesterday’s news,” said one Democrat.
Moving the convention will likely hit the party’s checkbook as well as Wisniewski has promised to cover any cancellation charges slapped on convention goers by the Trop.
Update: Democrats close to Wisniewski say the contract dispute and subsequent move were unforseeable and Wisniewski has put in a yeoman’s effort to pull it all together.
