On April 2, the 2020 Democratic National Convention (DNC) decided to postpone its presidential convention amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Originally scheduled to take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 13-16, the convention was pushed back to Aug. 17-20.
At the head of the DNC is Joe Solmonese, a Chilmark resident, who spoke to The Times about the summer convention and what it’s like to plan such a large event.
Solmonese grew up in Massachusetts, coming to the Island frequently while growing up. In 2001, Solmonese, who was living in Washington D.C., got reacquainted with the Island after visiting friends and decided to become a Vineyard homeowner. Solmonese and his husband then sold their home in Washington D.C. and moved to the Island permanently, eventually settling in Chilmark.
Since Solmonese took the job in Milwaukee about a year ago he’s tried to base himself there. But about three weeks ago he returned to his home on the Island to work remotely.
Brian Dowd: Can you talk about the logistical acrobatics that go into moving the convention to a new date?
JS: It’s a massive undertaking. It’s an event you essentially build from the ground up with a multi-million dollar budget. We’ve spent almost a year planning it with plans for tens of thousands of people to come to us in a medium sized American city that’s never hosted a convention before. It’s been an enormous amount of work. As this public health crisis hit us we realized we were going to need to think seriously about contingency plans. The one that became the most obvious was, at a minimum, we would need to move the convention later if the opportunity presented itself.
We spent some time trying to figure out, if we were to move it, what is a time slot that would work in terms of availability of venues, availability of the Fiserv Forum, where the convention is set to take place, availability of hotel rooms so that week of August 17 seemed to be the best possible option.
BD: Why Milkwaukee?
JS: Prior to me getting this job there was a fairly extensive site selection process and I think one of the things that really guided the DNC’s thinking was that we ought to hold this incredibly consequential high profile debate in a part of the country that was going to be essential to Democrats winning in the fall.
If you’re going to go some place, organize, and spend money, then ultimately bring the eyes of the world there for our nominee to kind of launch the general election and introduce his running mate, you know, why not do it in a place where we fell short in ‘16, where we need to really rededicate our efforts to try and win in ‘20, and Wisconsin is very much at the center of that electoral calculation for Democrats. The city of Milwaukee, through the site selection process, really stepped up and made an incredibly impressive bid to get it.
BD: Speaking of Wisconsin, how do you feel about Wisconsin having people go out [on April 7] and vote in person despite their stay-at-home order?
JS: I think it’s a crazy idea, but I also think it’s a really chilling look into what the rest of the year may look like. You have to wonder what the motivation was behind the Republicans insisting the election take place today and insisting that people vote in person. I worry that is going to be the sort of mindset that carries us into the fall. The president effectively said recently the more you create opportunities for people to vote virtually, vote by mail, do absentee balloting the worse it is for Republicans. Republicans didn’t really have a stake in the Democratic presidential primary process that happened today… I think this is less about the desire to have an election today and more about the desire to continue the drumbeat of business as usual and this crisis is not nearly as problematic as it is.
Another example of where Republicans are just not going to open the door to any kind of alternative except voting in person because they know and the president more or less acknowledged recently that that is bad for them.
BD: What kind of impacts does the convention have for the nominee?
JS: I think that for each party the convention does a number of things. It creates an opportunity and a launching pad for, in this case, the Democratic party’s nominee to start the general election, introduce himself and his running mate, to lift up some of the core values and issues of importance to the Democratic Party into the narrative of the convention programming. It really focuses the eyes of the country onto all of that in a uniquely important way.
BD: Do you expect any delegates either won’t be able to go or won’t want to go to the convention?
JS: You sort of laid it out in the way we often think about it. How do we monitor the public health landscape to try to determine who will be able to come? Beyond that, we’ve made a determination about who is able to come, who is then willing to come. We’re trying to sort of do scenario planning now and through the spring. With the time we’ve now gained pushing it back we’ll try to make as best a determination as we can about what attendance might look like. It may be that we have to wait a few weeks to get through the primaries and get through the delegate selection process and then work with the states individually to try to get a sense of what they might think that attendance may be like.
It’s another reason why moving it back five weeks was a good idea. Not just to get us hopefully in a better public health space, but to enable us to really try to figure out the answer to just that question.
BD: Are there any plans or preparations to make the DNC virtual in some way? How would that work and what would that look like?
JS: One of the things that I came to realize when I started this is that for convention planning purposes we sort of do scenario planning and prepare for all sorts of different scenarios. Whether it’s a public health crisis, whether it’s a national disaster, any number of things that might impact our ability to hold the convention or people’s ability to attend the convention.
We’ve thought about that and we continue to think about that. I think that it could look like any number of things we could have everyone there are some people there or not nearly as many people as we thought so we’re thinking through all of that right now. I couldn’t tell you at this point for security purposes and just also in terms of where we are in our planning of what a virtual convention would look like operationally.
BD: What are some differences between the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention?
JS: The Republican convention generally has fewer people attending. It has half as many delegates as the Democrats. They tend to have a model that doesn’t change much from cycle to cycle. As a logistical matter it tends to be sort of easier to pull off and more formulaic. They have a model that works, they have a team that tends to go sort of from convention to convention. They have fewer people that they’re trying to accommodate.
You can imagine with half the number of delegates when the work involves voting in the consideration of amendments, platform motions, and rules, and bylaws. Everything from voting process to transporting people…half the number of people reduces a lot of the complexity that goes into the planning.
It’s very different to plan a convention for the party that’s in power, for incumbent and president then it is for a challenger. From the beginning, the Republicans have been working under the guidance and the direction of the Trump administration. We’ve been working for a very long time with no presumptive nominee. It’s not a party difference, but just a sort of a difference of whether you’re planning the convention for the incumbent or the challenger.
“OK, the caterer for the VIP backstage just confirmed, we ordered 2 million balloons, and we’ve laid out the floorplan & press booths, pretty much the same as last time, And, same as last time, Bernie Sanders just betrayed his followers, and turned over all their small donations to the DNC’s preferred unelectable corporatist.
It’s almost SHOW TIME, Corn Pop!”
All of the dog faced pony soldiers are gonna have to skeedadle out of Milwaukee for sure lest old sleepy Joe gives them a piece of his mind (whatever’s left by then).
brian– nice 4th grade play– good to see that you are confirming that the ‘dems’ are calling people names and not addressing the issues.
Hmmm. so what is issue that you are addressing here ?
Are you loving “sleepy Joe” for his ‘dog faced pony soldier ‘ comment ?
Seems like that would be a presidential attribute for you, as you might not have any problem with a presidential candidate referring to someone as ” horse face”
Do you have a problem with a presidential candidate stooping so low ?
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-nasty-women_n_5d5eaf1ae4b0dfcbd48983bc
soooo presidential, while thousands of American citizens die. ‘Merica # 1 now–
So, Brian– a real question for you. how do think that the United States , the country that I am sure you think is the greatest country in the world with the best medical system wound up being # 1 in deaths as a result of this pandemic ?
let me help you out–if you call me some disparaging name, or tell me I have TDS, you will be a hero among the conservadumbs.
But, name calling does not mean much to a strand of rna surrounded by a protein.
It is so exquisitely appropriate that the Democrat convention should be planned from Chilmark.
Yeah, we know, Trumpers preferred it be planned from Moscow. Too bad.
what is your point here exactly or is this just snark for snark’s sake ?
A bad case of DDS– Democrat Derangement Syndrome, and, likely, Chilmark envy.
(Insert thumbs up emoji here)
For weeks in this pandemic, I have been seeing constant outrage about people coming over to the island and taxing the health system and Putting the islanders in danger with the foreign virus. Numerous articles in the MV Times about how we should all stay away. But here, you get to do your profile on one of your beloved from the DNC and not a word about his relocation. “Since Solmonese took the job in Milwaukee about a year ago he’s tried to base himself there. But about three weeks ago he came back to the Island permanently to work remotely.” Nothing but crickets.
The article doesn’t give a date as to when he moved to the island. Just that he reacquainted with the island 2001. So of he moved here year round any time before 2018, he has every right to come back to his home.
Nice try though…
Except that it literally DOES say when he moved back. “But about three weeks ago he came back to the Island permanently to work remotely”.
And that paragraph starts with “Since Solmonese took the job in Milwaukee about a year ago he tried to base himself there. But about three weeks ago he came BACK to the island to permanently work remotely”
The paragraph in the article before that one reads.
“2001, got reacquainted with the island and decided to become a Vineyard homeowner. Solmonese and his husband then sold their home in Washington DC and moved to the island permanently.
Eventually settling in Chilmark”
That to me reads that he has been a permanent resident of the island since right around 2001 or 2002.
For weeks in this pandemic I have been reading constant outrage from some contractors and tradespeople about how islanders have to be able to go to work NOW, and not stay home, and that tradespeople, ignoring all recommended scientific advice, know how to keep the virus away from themselves because they are, you know, special and not carriers. One guy even threatened that hundreds of tradespeople who are not allowed to work NOW are going to go to the markets and pharmacies just to hang out and crowd them.
Turns out the people with 2nd homes or (1st homes who spend a chunk of winter away) came here ahd obviously quarantined themselves– and brought their money to spend. Isn’t that what islanders wanted? What difference does it make when Solomonese settled here permanently?
Don’t get me wrong Jackie. I have NO problem with him coming. I have a home on Island and any mention of me coming over to my house has been met with pearl clutching panic about the disease that I will bring over and that my presence would overwhelm the system on the Vineyard. Although I don’t really agree, I have stayed away. My point is that, in these times, it seems to matter WHO is doing something more than WHAT they are doing. In this paper, for the past weeks, I have read repeatedly that off island people should not choose now to come to the island. Those bad “seasonal” people should stay away. BUT, as the island clearly has a very strong liberal bent, when one of the leaders of the DNC does exactly what they have preached against for weeks, not a single mention of how he shouldn’t do it. He gets a complete pass. Personally, I wish there would be less outrage about everything. However, if there is going to be outrage, I just wish it would be applied equally to all, not just those we disagree with.
The story says he’s a permanent resident of the Island.
No strong opinion, I don’t think that’s a fair assessment of the warnings about staying put. At least not the ones I’ve seen in public forums. The focus has been on protecting us all, not just locals. Many, including the president of MV Hospital, stated facts without any rage. Anyone coming to the Vineyard could be carrying the virus. That’s a legit concern, just as it would be if Island residents left en masse and decided to stay on the mainland, possibly taking it with them. We can all transmit this, and travel contributes to the spread of disease. No community can handle that right now.
But the concern doesn’t end there. Corona has already reached MV. Even if seasonal residents arrive here healthy and spend time in quarantine (and not everyone has been doing that), some will eventually go out for supplies. They could just as easily catch this from a local. That still means more potential infections, resulting in more people that could need treatment at the same time. This virus has a relatively high rate of transmission. When the hospital is telling us that just one patient can tip the scales, it becomes obvious why the warnings have been urgent. Why it’s best to have fewer potential hosts in a resource-strapped area.
If this peaks in a few weeks as predicted, hospital and emergency services could end up at capacity or beyond. This is about worrying that those from off-Island could need immediate help, should they get sick after arriving, and it not being available. We care about you. It’s also about not taking help away from anyone who has no choice but to be on the Island right now, including many elderly and sick year-round residents. They don’t have anywhere else to go.
Last but not least, it should be about protecting our hospital staff. They can’t afford to be out of commission, and the more people they have to deal with, the higher the risk of that happening. We don’t have a bunch of replacements waiting in the wings, to my knowledge. They don’t deserve to be overburdened or put in the position of having to make impossible decisions. Especially not if our choices can help avoid that. It’s a sad fact that hospitals everywhere are facing these issues, not just MV, but we are among those disadvantaged from the jump due to being rural.
I don’t mean any of this in a combative way. Just wanted to explain some factors that have to be kept in mind. It’s so much bigger than Islanders fearing anyone from a certain location. Thank you for staying home for now. I wish that weren’t necessary. Take care.
Joe lives here on Martha’s Vineyard, and typically travels several days a week for work. When he was told to work remotely, as many of us were, he returned to his one permanent home, in Chilmark, to work. It’s where he lives, year-round. He is not a summer or seasonal or weekend resident.
What a wonderful feel-good story about a typical Chilmark summer resident. Good thing you and your spouse can hide out up island. Thank God for the internet. Get your money upfront, I understand the DNC does not have as much cash as they need to put on an event like this. Certainly not going to get to many donations from working people or Berniebro’s
Did you gloss over the part of the article that states he is a permanent resident of Chilmark?
Let’s cut this guy some slack here, folks. He has his work cut out for him trying to push Biden up the hill to the presidency. Sisyphus just sent him a condolence letter.