Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx Makes Progress on DNC Committee Preparations

Officials in Charlotte, North Carolina are wasting no time in preparing for the Democratic National Convention, a gathering that will be the city’s most visible political event in its history.

Mayor Anthony Foxx has handpicked some of the leadership team that will ultimately bear the responsibility for the final convention details.

Last week, Foxx named Dan Murrey as the executive director of Charlotte’s host committee. Murrey is a former Mecklenburg County commissioner, an orthopedic surgeon, and the CEO of OrthoCarolina. He will take a leave from his job for the host committee duties. In his leadership role, he will be responsible for fundraising, public relations and outreach work. He and his unnamed steering committee will also work directly with the Democratic National Committee on event details. Murrey will be paid an undisclosed salary from private funds.

Charlotte was selected earlier this year to host the Democratic National Convention during the week of September 3, 2012. The city beat out Cleveland, St. Louis, and Minneapolis for the designation. Though the announcement has been much-celebrated, the reality is that major work needs to be completed to execute a flawless and memorable convention for everyone involved.

“We’re not starting from scratch but it’s going to be important now to get a permanent team in place … and start acting out our plan,” Murrey told the Charlotte Observer.

“You’re going to be seeing more activity ramping up, and we’re excited about that,” he added.

Murrey’s sentiment was correct. His appointment by Mayor Foxx was not the first convention-related leadership move the mayor made. Shortly after the DNC’s announcement of Charlotte as the host city, Foxx announced that former Mayor Harvey Gantt would lead a study to gather best practices from other cities around the country that have hosted political conventions of this size.

From the study, Gantt found that communication between the DNC and Charlotte officials will be vitally important. They also cited strong fundraising tactics and ongoing engagement of minority businesses as two other areas to remember. The previous host cities also cited strong leadership of the host committee that were key to the events running smooth.

Matt E. Stevens is the creator and chief blogger of Prune Juice Media. The site takes a sarcastic and informative look at the issues of the day – namely politics and current affairs. The goal of the site is to share information and make people laugh, or at least think. Matt is a contributing writer for Politic365.

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