rivka

As those of you who attended the Meetup know, the first official debate for the Democratic Party will be held in Charleston, SC on May 3. Dean, Kerry, Lieberman, Edwards, and Gephardt have already agreed to be there, and the other candidates may attend as well.

We thought that traveling to the debate would be a great opportunity to show our support for Dean, and I volunteered to find out what we need to know. Erin [lastname] and Matt [lastname] are both kind enough to be working on this as well.

Tickets to the debate are $25, and a limited number are available. Thus, if this is something we're going to do, we'll need to get on it quickly. We'll have information about how to purchase a ticket on Monday, which is two days before the information will be available to the general public (thanks to Matt!). There's also a pre-debate reception at $100/ticket, but I'm guessing not many people will have that kind of money to spend on a non-Dean-specific fundraiser.

I'm guessing that we would leave in the early morning on Saturday (say, 6am) to be sure of arriving in time for the debate in the evening. We'd return on Sunday May 4.

I'm looking into transportation options. If 40-50 people want to go, it will probably be cost-effective to charter a bus. For a smaller group, carpooling will probably be a better idea. I have three quote requests in with charter bus companies, and expect to hear back by Monday.

My questions for you all are:
(1) Would you be likely to attend the debate if we organize a trip?
(2) Would you prefer to carpool or rent a charter bus?
(3) How high would the total cost of the trip (debate ticket + transportation + lodging) have to be to keep you from attending?

I hope to have some more concrete costs available to you soon.

Rebecca