The delegates’ delicate decision: Is the honor worth the cost?

CHARLOTTE — Tim Mauldin likes most of what goes into being a convention delegate for his home state of Oklahoma.

“It’s partly about a family reunion. It’s partly about learning things,” the 65-year-old resident of Norman, home of the University of Oklahoma, said Tuesday at the Charlotte Convention Center, day one of the 2012 DNC.

This is Mauldin’s fifth convention, and he’ll vote in favor of President Obama as his party’s nominee.

But while Mauldin and other delegates say they like mingling with like-minded political participants and playing such a direct role in the presidential election, being a delegate has its drawbacks, from shelling out the money for their trips to eating into their vacation days.

“You better budget at least $2,500,” Mauldin said. “Every delegate has to pay his or her own way.”

According to delegates, their state Democratic parties didn’t pay their way to the convention, although the state parties will help them with the booking of their hotel rooms.

For delegates with big salaries, coming up with the money for the trip might not be a big deal. For those who don’t make much, like Preston Fields, they have a simple choice: Spend what it takes to attend the convention or stay home and miss out on possibly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of history.

Luckily for Fields, from Maryville, Tenn., his family and friends threw a dinner fundraiser for him to attend the Charlotte convention.

Fields, director of community engagement for Maryville College, a liberal arts school, said he makes about $32,000 a year. So, the roughly $1,000 price tag for his trip would have been a lot to swallow.

The June dinner, at his boss’ home, raised $800.

“It kind of helped me recoup the costs,” said Preston, 30, a first-time delegate.

If not for the fundraiser, he still would have attended the convention but, he said, his post-convention meals probably would have ramen noodles for a while.

Fields, who said he came here on a bus with other delegates from Tennessee, added that he used vacation days for the trip. He arrived in Charlotte Sunday and plans to leave Friday.

Bing Wong, a delegate from Portland, Ore., also got lucky. A retired medical technologist specializing in drug-testing, his union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, is reimbursing him for the trip to Charlotte.

“The (Democratic) Party does not reimburse delegates,” said Wong, adding that the Oregon Democratic Party is too small to cover the costs for its delegates to attend DNCs.

Wong said not only is the union covering the cost of the flight ($600) and hotel ($135 a night at the Comfort Suites hotel in Charlotte’s University Area), it has given him a per diem that equates to $210 for his whole trip.

With the union covering his expenses, Wong can afford to buy souvenirs for his family. While in Charlotte, he said, he would be looking for some “race car stuff, because my family members are mechanics.”

Mauldin doesn’t have a union paying his way to the convention. The gray-haired, blue-eyed, self-described “Will Rogers enthusiast” — he gives reporters a handout filled with quotations from Rogers — said he’s spending about $183 a night to stay at the SpringHill Suites Charlotte Airport hotel.

Mauldin, who teaches political science at Oklahoma City University, said DNCs force delegates to “make arrangements with our employers.”

He, for instance, is taking time off without pay.

While the Democratic Party helps find hotel space for delegates, Mauldin said, he did the booking online, although in an unorthodox way.

Because he’s leery about giving his credit card information over the Internet, he said, he went to a credit union, put about $350 on a prepaid card and booked his hotel room with it.

Such hassles and high costs to attend a political convention might seem silly to some, considering that, at least in the case of the 2012 election, the nominee and running mate for the Democratic Party are foregone conclusions.

Still, delegates say it’s worth it.

Lisa Plymate, a delegate from Washington state, said the convention’s purpose is “to fire people up.”

Attending her first convention, Plymate said she gets a lot out of hearing so many top-name speakers and the “camaraderie” with other Democrats.

“I haven’t seen any downsides yet,” she said.

Well, except for the cost of her hotel: $1,200 for five nights at The Hilton Charlotte Executive Park hotel.

“The hotels, I think, jacked up the prices,” she said.

Deon Roberts can be reached at [email protected].

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