‘Draft Biden’ Team Works the Crowd at Democratic Gathering :Peter Nicholas
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/08/28/draft-biden-team-works-the-crowd-at-democratic-gathering/
MINNEAPOLIS – On the third floor of a downtown Hilton hotel, Democratic officials are spending the next few days debating arcane rules and passing resolutions.
In a hotel suite 20 floors up, a clique of ardent Joe Biden supporters have set up a command center with a different mission in mind: Finding recruits for a possible Biden presidential bid.
The Draft Biden super PAC has descended on the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting, hoping to sign up the fundraisers and grassroots activists the vice president will need if he chooses to mount a presidential campaign.
Mr. Biden is expected to announce a decision next month.
A Draft Biden flyer circulating at the conference reads: “The race for the 2016 nomination is still up for grabs as Vice President Joe Biden thoughtfully considers his potential candidacy.”
Mr. Biden would enter the race as a clear underdog, with polls showing Hillary Clinton running well ahead of the Democratic field, despite some slippage over the past couple of months.
The Clinton camp was also out in force. Clinton campaign volunteers were signing up supporters near the conference registration desk on Thursday. And Mrs. Clinton spoke privately to DNC members and other party officials on Thursday evening. She and other Democratic presidential candidates are to address the full conference on Friday.
Bob Mulholland, a DNC member from California who attended the meeting with Mrs. Clinton, said she spoke for 20 minutes after being introduced by Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Mark Dayton.
She predicted she would win in November 2016, recounted some of her work as first lady, laid out various positions and told stories about her family, Mr. Mulholland said.
Chocolate bars offered by Draft Biden 2016 supporters
She told the group that her granddaughter Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky, who is 11 months old, had her nails cut recently — in part because she has taken to grabbing grandfather Bill Clinton’s nose.
Mr. Biden won’t be appearing at the conference. So, in his stead, the Draft Biden group is hoping to seize the moment and make inroads with the party operatives whose support would be needed to make a Biden campaign competitive.
“This is the core of the party,” said Josh Alcorn, a senior adviser to Draft Biden. “The members of the DNC are opinion leaders and their opinion matters in their community. Any chance we have to talk to them is a great opportunity for us.”
He said the briefings for DNC members have been well attended, with dozens of people showing up to hear the pitch.
“We’re a draft movement without a candidate and we’re able to fill this room,” Mr. Alcorn said of the hotel suite. “It shows a thirst for someone like him.”
One freebie that Draft Biden is passing out has proved to be a hot item: a chocolate bar with an image of Mr. Biden in aviator sunglasses behind the wheel of a car. “I’m ridin’ with Biden,” the caption reads.
The Draft Biden forces put out a plate of candy bars on the hotel check-in desk. They went quickly.
Pete Gertonson, a DNC member from Idaho, stuck his head in the suite at one point to ask if he could grab a few more of the candy bars. A Biden supporter back home heard about them and asked for one, he explained.
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