Briefly: Convention notebook

Convention chairman thinks West will make or break Kerry

Boston The Democrats’ convention chairman says the presidential election will be won in the West. If so, why is his party meeting in a bastion of East Coast liberalism to nominate two Eastern senators for president and vice president?

For New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the answer is simple. Issues – from energy policy to forest protection – favor Democratic candidates John Kerry and John Edwards, he said. And regional divides aren’t what they used to be, he said.

The West, Richardson said Saturday, “is demographically changing. Many Westerners have come from both coasts.”

Richardson, who was on Kerry’s list of potential vice presidential candidates, said that while the presidential election is being fought in about 20 swing states spread across the national map, he thinks five states – including four in the West – are the key.

“I believe the Latino vote is going to decide the election, and it is going to be in states like Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Florida,” said Richardson, one of the nation’s most prominent Hispanic politicians. He said he believed if Democrats held President Bush to under 40 percent among Hispanics, Kerry would win the election. Nationally, Bush won about 35 percent of Hispanics in 2000.

Richardson told reporters at a pre-convention breakfast that Democrats are using a bevy of newly formed state-based political committees to mount unprecedented grass-roots campaigns in the West. Richardson himself has raised about $2 million for an organization designed to boost Hispanic voter turnout.

“I am of the belief that the West is virgin territory for Democrats,” Richardson told reporters. “In the past, we have neglected the West.”

Protesters complain about site

Boston As thousands of delegates, journalists and dignitaries stream into the Fleet Center, protesters for the next few days will be enclosed in a shadowy, closed-off piece of urban streetscape just over a block away.

The maze of overhead netting, chain link fencing and razor wire couldn’t be further in comfort from the high-tech confines of the arena stage where John Kerry is to accept the Democratic nomination for president during the four-day convention that kicks off Monday.

Abandoned, elevated rail lines and green girders loom over most of the official demonstration zone that slopes down to a subway station closed for the duration. To avoid hitting girders, tall protesters will have to duck at one end of the 28,000-square-foot zone. Train tracks obscure the line of sight to much of the Fleet Center. Concrete blocks were set around streets in the area, a transportation hub on the north side of downtown.

Protesters likened the site Saturday to a concentration camp as they complained it is too far from the Fleet Center to get their messages across, even though the site is next to a parking lot where many delegates will pass on foot en route to the arena.

Authorities say – and a judge agreed – the discomforts are needed for security in the post-Sept. 11 era.

On a rainy morning made darker by overhead girders, protest leaders held a news conference at the demonstration zone Saturday to object to the site. Some called it a violation of their free-speech rights. As they spoke, pools of rainwater collected on pavement.

American Civil Liberties Union and National Lawyers Guild attorneys asked a federal judge to open up or move the zone.

Al-Jazeera set for TV coverage

Washington Among the many logo-bedecked television skyboxes visible from the floor of the Fleet Center, one name sticks out: Al-Jazeera.

“That says so much about where the world is now – and about the interest in this election,” marveled CNN Washington bureau chief David Bohrman. He saw the Arabic-language news channel’s insignia the other day as he surveyed the Democratic National Convention hall in Boston.

Qatar-based Al-Jazeera is one of many international news organizations covering this year’s political conventions. When Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts accepts the Democratic nomination for president Thursday, he will speak to an audience that is not just national but global.

In Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and Latin America, millions of people are expected to follow the Democratic National Convention through TV, radio and other media to learn more about the man trying to unseat President Bush. Many will tune in again when Republicans renominate Bush in New York at their convention Aug. 30-Sept. 2.