Social scene at the convention

Although some huge decisions are made at national political conventions — electing a president and vice president, for example — the four-day event is really just one drawn-out party.

The week is filled with luncheons, receptions and afterglows hosted by party bigwigs, companies and labor groups like the UAW. For delegates, this means a week of free food and drinks and the opportunity to network with fellow politicos.

While chatting with a Virginia delegate Tuesday in the hall of Pepsi Center, he told me his main reason for attending wasn’t to take part in official convention business. He had come for the freebies and the “party crashing,” he said.

But Denver residents who are the unofficial hosts of the party’s celebrations have mixed feelings about the whole thing. For the most part, they are happy for the revenue and excitement the convention brings to town, but many of them say they could do without the all-night parties.

Parties have a tendency to last long into the night, as I witnessed firsthand Monday evening when the UAW hosted a soiree at my hotel. I had a difficult time drifting to sleep against the muffled thumping of the music downstairs.

One woman who lives in an area downtown near three senior citizen housing complexes said the noise of a nearby party, which lasted until 4 a.m., sounded similar to fireworks bouncing of the area’s high-rise buildings.

Another told me the number of drunken convention-goers wandering the streets at night is almost as intolerable as the bumper-to-bumper traffic caused by the event. She said her friends who work in the downtown area have taken the week off rather than battling the crowds.

But the nuisances of the event may be outweighed by the financial benefits of having the convention in town. Denver is expected to see increased revenues of at least $160 million, according to the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee.

That’s quite a big payoff for a few nights of restless sleep.