Power evident in DNC pledge.

• Author: Schwab, Robert
• Position: Democratic National Convention

Stepping up gives you power.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Three Fortune 500 companies who are ranked in our 2007 Most Powerful organizations list (page 18) stepped up in late November to pledge $11.5 million in an effort to win Denver the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

The three were Qwest Communications International Inc. (No. 5 on our list), Xcel Energy (No. 15) and Comcast Corp. (No. 16). By the time you read this, you might already have heard the decision of the Democratic National Committee.

Denver and New York were the two finalists, and the announcement of the successful fund-raising by Denver host committee officials was timed to send a signal to the DNC and its chairman, Howard Dean, that Denver and Colorado could easily raise enough money to host the event.

The $11.5 million was more than half the $20 million goal local host committee officials have set for the business community, and Dean has been reported to be concerned that Colorado, until recently considered a stalwart Republican stronghold, would have difficulty funding the estimated $80 million cost of holding the convention here.

But Colorado units of the three powerful companies--two of them don't actually have headquarters here--stepped up with their pledges because their managers realize the economic impact snagging the convention could have on both metro Denver's and the whole state's economies.

The 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston supposedly reaped an economic benefit of twice that $80 million, although, as usual, critics of the Boston confab argue the benefit was much less.

But even after the pledges were made public, some local in siders were skeptical that Denver could pull off winning the bid.

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, who may still be battling for the convention's presidential nomination when it arrives in August of 2008 either here or in New York, would naturally favor a home-court advantage. She's lobbying hard for New York, although she had a fantastically...