Pritzker, allies to DNC: We’ll cover the bill — if Chicago gets the ’24 convention

CHICAGO — Illinois politicians, including Gov. JB Pritzker, and wealthy corporate leaders are sweetening their pitch to host the 2024 Democratic convention by pledging to make sure the DNC can walk away debt-free.

In the city’s battle with other finalists, New York City and Atlanta, the governor, his sister and former Commerce secretary Penny Pritzker, businessman Michael Sacks, Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts and Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea have been in talks about funding Chicago’s effort. It’s a lineup of resources designed to blunt the fears of repeating the 2012 convention in Charlotte, N.C., which ended with an $8 million tab.

“We have a strong fundraising community that will be able to raise the money for the convention and not create any debt for the DNC, the city of Chicago or the state of Illinois. It would be a win for everyone financially and electorally,” Chicago Federation of Labor President Robert Reiter said in an interview. “And it would put thousands of people to work.”

But what’s gone largely unsaid — at least officially — is the governor’s own riches.

JB Pritzker, a billionaire with presidential potential, is a noted philanthropist and a prolific Democratic donor who cut checks last year for incumbent governors like Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer and the Democratic parties in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Pritzker’s team is hoping to lure the party to Chicago with what’s essentially a financially risk-free 2024 convention. Federal funds don’t generally cover conventions, though security for the U.S. Secret Service is funded through a federal grant for as much as $50 million to pay for, among other things, additional police presence. So having a billionaire governor as a stopgap could be alluring.

“The governor has spoken directly to Joe Biden and committed that Chicago has the ability to fund the convention,” Natalie Edelstein, a spokesperson for the Chicago bid, told POLITICO.

Conventions are costly affairs. When the 2012 Democratic convention wrapped, Democrats still owed money on everything from operational expenses to construction work and modifications made to the Time Warner Cable Arena. To deal with the $8 million bill, the city of Charlotte secured a $10 million line of credit from Duke Energy, an electric utility in the region. But Democrats didn’t repay Duke, which claimed the money as a business expense, drawing criticism for leaving shareholders to foot the bill.

Those organizing Chicago’s bid expect the price tag to run between $80 million and $100 million.

A priority for Chicago and Atlanta is fundraising, which relies on four pillars: organized labor, national corporations, political donors and local businesses and leaders.

“If one of those entities is not participating, it becomes almost impossible to fundraise,” said a Democratic strategist who’s consulted on conventions.

President Joe Biden has already sought to nudge his party south, pushing South Carolina up the Democratic presidential nominating calendar, and awarding the convention to Atlanta would bring more attention to Georgia, which swung his way in 2020. Labor leaders in New York have also tried to spike Atlanta over its dearth of unionized hotels and the idea that such a pro-union president would take the convention to a right-to-work state.

Still, some Midwestern Democratic elected officials have recommended Chicago to the DNC, according to letters written by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and others.

A potential strike among food workers at Chicago’s United Center, which would be the centerpiece location of the convention, caused some recent concern about the viability of the bid. But the tensions appear to be close to a resolution. UNITE HERE Local 1 and Levy Restaurants have reached a tentative agreement, and union members are expected to ratify it in the coming days.

The effort to bring the Democratic convention to Chicago is also reminiscent of the city’s business community stepping up in 2009 for an ill-fated bid for the 2016 Olympic Games.

But another undercurrent around Chicago’s push for 2024 attention is the persistent concern about the city’s crime, which upended the mayor’s race this winter. Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who was seen as a strong voice to represent the city in a convention, was bumped from the runoff, leaving two candidates at the extreme ends of the Democratic Party about public safety and policing.