Democrats Meet in Denver, Amidst is the REALTOR® R
Robert Freedman, Senior Editor
DENVER – Sixteenth Street is packed beyond imagination. This wide boulevard, redeveloped by the city about two dozen years ago into a downtown pedestrian mall with service by a cheery electric streetcar , is where you find much of the throng that’s gathered in this city to attend the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
You have protest groups in which everyone is dressed in black, and those in which everyone is dressed in pink; you have vendors hawking a dizzying array of stickers, buttons, and T-shirts of the Democrats’ presumptive nominee, Barack Obama; you have an even dizzier array of people with their credentials hanging prominently around their necks; and you have security personnel, many armed with black and glistening automatic weapons, on every street corner and in the doorways to the restaurants and stores.
But amidst this chaos it’s the truck that’s been making a loop up and down 16th Street and around the delegate headquarters at the nearby Colorado Convention Center that attracts my attention: It’s a sign truck with a gigantic REALTOR® R and the message “Make sure you use a REALTOR® to get real results,” sponsored by the Colorado Association of REALTORS®.
I know I’m not the only one here who takes a professional interest in this friendly reminder of what sets REALTORS® apart from others who sell real estate; out of 4,233 delegates in town,
more than 90 of them, representing almost 30 states, are REALTORS®, making real estate surely one of the best-represented professions at the convention.
I’ll be talking with several of them over the next three days of the convention to find out how and why they became delegates, what they hope to accomplish, and how the industry benefits from their political involvement.
The last question I’ll ask them is why they think REALTORS® comprise such a large contingent of the decision-makers at this convention. But I think I know the answer already. When your profession is about building communities, how can you not be involved in politics at the most grassroots level?
I know from listening to the speeches on this first day of the convention at the Pepsi Center half a mile away that the concerns of REALTORS® get attention. In her remarks opening the convention, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California ticked off a list of bills Congress passed over the last two years. At the top of the list were the NAR-backed economic stimulus bill and the sweeping housing stimulus bill, which was signed by the president in July.
When the ailing Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts made a surprise appearance later in the program, one of NAR’s top priorities—health insurance—was his big topic. And Patricia Madrid, the New Mexico attorney general and a co-chair of the Democratic Platform Committee, talked about how her party’s priorities include “keeping families in their homes,” investing in infrastructure, and jumpstarting the economy. “The American Dream is at risk,” she said.
Next week, when I’m in Minneapolis covering the Republican National Convention, where more than 220 delegates will be REALTORS®, many of the top goals will be the same. But, as they say, the devil is in the details. The Republican approaches to helping home owners, building infrastructure, shoring up the economy, and providing health insurance will surely be very different.
But that’s the democratic way, and this week and next are our democracy’s moment in the sun.
If you have a question or two that you’d like to ask the REALTOR® delegates—of either the Democrat or Republican camp—please send it in as a comment, and I'll be sure to pose the question during my interviews over the next two weeks.
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Comments
I like this statement: The last question I’ll ask them is why they think REALTORS® comprise such a large contingent of the decision-makers at this convention. But I think I know the answer already. When your profession is about building communities, how can you not be involved in politics at the most grassroots level?
Posted by: bahamas real estate | August 26, 2008 12:39 PM
Thank you for posting a great newsbit and a positive one at that amidst all the glitz and glamour that is the convention here in wonderful, beautiful Colorado.
Posted by: carrie n miller | August 26, 2008 04:27 PM
Looking forward to reading more ... but how about some pictures too?
Posted by: Cindy Butts | August 26, 2008 07:15 PM