MILWAUKEE – In a year of canceled plans, with vacations, graduations and sports seasons warmed by the coronavirus crisis, the stretch of downtown Milwaukee where Democrats had to hold their nominating convention this week was quiet and sparsely populated – another lost memory of a summer.
Instead of thousands of Democrats preparing to rebuild Fiserv Forum, there was just one street near the smaller Wisconsin Center this weekend that will host the last few parts of the Democratic National Convention – including speeches of Wisconsin politicians – will still take place in this city. There was no sign close to the venue that marks the occasion. Hotels were closed, restaurants were empty and the bars of America’s most beer – loving city were infertile.
“Which convention?” said Michaela Jaggi, a 21-year-old who walked through the Wisconsin Center on Saturday afternoon.
She finally remembered: Joseph R. Biden Jr. Would accept the Democratic nomination for president this week. And the Democratic Party, disgraced for not adequately investing in Wisconsin during the 2016 election, was to showcase its commitment to an all-important state Electoral College.
That was before the virus crisis forced Democrats to transform their convention into a virtual event in which none of the leading participants would actually appear from Milwaukee.
“I’ve spent all these months in my apartment,” said Mrs. Jaggi. “I think it was cool that they came here, but it’s responsible that they are no more.”
Some realities have not changed: The convention, which begins Monday and ends with a speech by Mr Biden on Thursday evening, marks the beginning of the formal general election between Mr Biden and President Trump. The running mate of Mr. Biden, Senator Kamala Harris of California, will have her largest audience yet, in a speech on Wednesday night. A Who’s Who of Democratic Party politics will also provide addresses to the nation – including former President Barack Obama, former First Lady Michelle Obama, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Hillary and Bill Clinton.
Apart from the five key speeches by Mr Biden, his wife, Jill Biden, Mrs Harris and the Obamas, the average length of comments will be just two minutes, said organizers of the convention. Mr. Sanders will have an eight-minute time slot. He plans to speak live from Burlington, Vt., But will record a version in advance in case of technical difficulties. Mr Sanders and Mrs Obama are the keynote speakers for the opening night.
For Americans who watch at home or on their phones, the convention will provide a unique viewing experience – a combination of this concept of the April National Football League, which ping-ponged from city to city, the produced montages of “Saturday Night Live at Home” and a political phone call asking viewers to do and donate to the Biden campaign.
But the virtual nature of the convention is also a reminder that this is an election season like no other. The country, the economy and the campaign trail have all been lifted by the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed nearly 170,000 Americans. It has also re-adjusted daily American life and, in the political world, priorities for voting and access to the ballot box.
The social and economic damage is particularly evident in Milwaukee, where businesses and residents had millions in income in preparation for the city’s most anticipated event in decades.
For a community that has long suffered from an inferiority complex, winning the convention across cities like Miami and Houston would have done away with Milwaukee’s civic self-control. But now it’s not hard to find local Democrats depressed about the lost opportunity to see their city in front of a national audience, and the declining turnover that would come from an influx of about 50,000 visitors.
Marc Dulberger, a local businessman who said he threw $ 30,000 into various ventures in anticipation of the big event this summer, said the combined loss of revenue from professional sports leagues and the convention had been a personal financial disaster.
“No Brewers, no Bucks, no convention,” Dulberger said. “It’s the ghost convention now.”
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett complained about the loss of an expected $ 200 million in economic impact, saying there was “enormous disappointment” that the event was now virtual. Representative Gwen Moore, the longtime Milwaukee Democratic lawmaker, said the combination of the pandemic and the loss of the convention was a “double whammy”.
When Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson, President of the Convention, gavels in the convention on Monday night, it will represent the culmination of a slow downsizing of five months, hooked from 24 hours over everything to eight hours.
If all goes well, the convention will have the intrigue and excitement of a reality TV contest in which viewers already know who won. But if things go wrong, technical glitches could take a very long two hours for convention organizers.
“These last few months, every time I sign up for Zoom, something goes wrong,” said Ms. Moore, the Milwaukee legislator.
The concluding convention will be a mix of live and pre-recorded speeches and highly produced visual elements.
There will be a montage with the Democratic presidential candidates of 2020, a 30-minute call from states (from more than two hours) and – most difficult of all for a political class that enjoys a few things more than talking on camera – strict time limits.
Four of the five major speeches will be delivered live, while Mrs. Obama has already recorded them. Ms. Clinton will address the convention live, her return to the national party she once led. Mr Clinton’s remarks will be on tape.
The shorter speeches are a result of not only the virtual limitations but also the lack of applause. And unlike a typical national political gathering where the action takes place at banquets as well as in arena concerts, the entire Milwaukee event will be carried out entirely from a control room within the convention center.
“There will be much less news,” said Elaine Kamarck, a DNC member who serves as an unofficial party historian. “My immediate concern is that the productions every night of the convention are compelling enough to hold an audience.”
The major broadcast networks plan to broadcast one hour of the convention live each night, from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on the East Coast. Cable news channels will show the two hour follow-up in full. There will be an official livestream of the party and the event will also be available on news websites, social media sites and streaming services.
No official business will be conducted in Milwaukee. The voting to nominate Mr Biden and approve the platform was carried out via email and completed on Saturday. The only dignitaries who will be on site in Milwaukee for the convention are the DNC President, Tom Perez, and Wisconsin elected officials who will speak, including Mrs. Moore, Mr. Barrett and Government Tony Evers.
The key people at the Wisconsin Center will be the control room operators who produce the two hours of content each night.
The large donors of the party, traditionally filled with luxury suites, will probably have the most atypical convention. They will look like everyone else at home, without their desired access to governors, senators and other top party officials.
Alex Lasry, who heads the $ 40 million host committee and is the son of Marc Lasry, a co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, once expected 50,000 visitors to the Fiserv Forum during the event. . Now, he said, he will watch the convention on one screen and the NBA playoffs on another, as the Bucks begin a postseason off the league quarantine side in Florida.
“I would probably go on Thursday to see the control room,” he said.
Mayor Barrett said the city was expected to be reimbursed by the federal government for the more than $ 20 million it had spent on convention-related security costs. The city’s police department remains on high alert, Mr Barrett said, for possible protesters outside the convention center, although it remains unclear why they would come without the spotlight for the city’s national media.
With no delegates coming to Milwaukee, state parties have been looking for creative ways to attract supporters. In Boston, Democrats are building a pop-up drive-in movie theater to show the festivities at the former Suffolk Downs racetrack.
Jim Roosevelt, a conference attendee since 1960, said he had been asked by delegates over the summer how the convention could best be experienced.
“The first thing I recommend is that people who look at home act as if they are there,” said Mr. Roosevelt, a DNC member from Massachusetts. “Set aside the week as if you were there in Milwaukee and immerse yourself in electronic participation.”
In recent weeks, there has been an attempt by Milwaukee’s business and political leaders to convince the DNC that the city needs a do-over in 2024.
Gary Witt, who has locations in downtown Milwaukee that would have held concerts and parties, launched a campaign in April to drive the city around the idea of pushing the party to return.
“For some people in our city, there has been a certain amount of shell shock relative to death due to thousands of cuts made by the DNC,” said Mr. Witt, who expected $ 750,000 in revenue from event-related events. “If the Democratic Party does not believe enough in the idea of bringing hope to a city and is now more needed than ever because of the pandemic, if they do not feel that this is a good idea, then they might do it because it can help them win Wisconsin in 2024. ”
Mr. Perez said assigning the 2024 convention would be a question left to Mr Biden if, if Mr Trump wins re-election, the next party chairman.
“I will not be the DNC chair in four years, OK,” Mr Perez said. “That, that will be a question for my successor.”
In an effort to highlight the absence of Democrats, Mr. Trump and other Republicans are holding personal events in Wisconsin this week – coronavirus being damned. Democrats hope voters will reward their caution, and do not put together a desire to take the virus seriously with a disregard for voters in Wisconsin.
When Karan Novak, 65, walked her dog in Milwaukee on Saturday afternoon, she complained that Wisconsinites were being passed on by Democrats again, as in 2016. But she also said the risk was too great, citing the outbreak of virus outbreaks in Oklahoma after the Mr. Trump’s indoor rally in Tulsa.
“I do not think they had another choice but to forget on the side of caution,” Ms Novak said, before pointing to a lost opportunity.
“My husband was a great autograph sure,” she said. “He had such big plans.”
Astead W. Herndon reported from Milwaukee, and Reid J. Epstein from Washington. Sydney Ember contributed reporting.
