Sunday, Jan. 06, 2008

Aggressive salesmanship snared Myrtle Beach debates

EDITOR'S NOTE: Originally published in The Sun News on Jan. 6, 2008.

When two presidential debates arrive in Myrtle Beach this month, everyone involved agrees that they may be the city's best chance ever to sell itself on the national level.

Behind the scenes, many involved agree that the debates were secured by an unprecedented marketing effort.

"I can put you in the game, but I can't play it for you," said U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-Columbia, the powerful House majority whip. "I put Myrtle Beach in the game, but I think Brad Dean played it."

Dean, the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce president, went into full promoter mode: He spoke of the seasoned and sophisticated hospitality infrastructure that helps Myrtle Beach host 14 million visitors annually. He told of the towering - and largely empty, during January - hotel rooms that line the oceanfront, the theaters available for a stage, the restaurant scene and transportation plans.

A factor that helped with both parties, Dean said, was the shifting population base of Myrtle Beach. A debate in Myrtle Beach, he told them, would reach residents' extended families all over the country.

The Grand Strand's first big attempt to play host wasn't taken seriously.

Dean had lobbied for the area to host a debate during the 2006 governor's race, but one state official gently chided him that while the Grand Strand made a fine vacation spot, it held no place in state politics.

"We might be the state's economic engine, but for a lot of state leaders, we weren't even on the political radar," Dean said. "We needed to establish ourselves as a competing venue for political debates."

The strongest statement Myrtle Beach could make, Dean said, was to host a presidential debate. He decided to put all the pressure he could on both parties.

"We put our names in both hats, hoping to get one, never really thinking we would get two," Dean said.

The Democratic process

One of the first steps toward a Democratic presidential debate came during a ceremony Jan. 8, 2007, inducting civil-rights activist Matthew Perry into the S.C. Hall of Fame.

Dean pulled aside Clyburn, freshly chosen as the House Majority Whip, and asked him what he thought of the idea of a Myrtle Beach debate.

Clyburn's reply, Dean said, was noncommittal - "an interesting idea," Dean said he called it.

The announcement that the Congressional Black Caucus Institute would be hosting a debate came later via an e-mailed press release, and Sally Howard, a former local Democratic Party chairwoman, said she saw it the morning before she was headed to meet Clyburn in Columbia for an unrelated meeting. When she arrived, she immediately brought up the idea of a Grand Strand debate and even called Dean from her cell phone and handed it to Clyburn.

Clyburn seemed interested and told her politely, "We'd love to come to Myrtle Beach," Howard said.

Soon afterward, Dean and a handful of others were in Washington, D.C., lobbying for federal money for beach renourishment and other projects. Over dinner at Union Station, Dean asked Clyburn again.

"He said, if Myrtle Beach could sell itself to the national media and the [Congressional Black Caucus Institute], he said he would certainly endorse our effort," Dean said.

The Congressional Black Caucus Institute, an organization formed by the caucus to train young black political leaders, has made a recent tradition of hosting Democratic presidential debates, and Clyburn has heavy sway within both the caucus and its institute. In his sixth year in Congress, Clyburn was elected chair of the caucus in a unanimous vote and, under his tenure, the institute was created. He still serves on its board.

Though his House district does not include Myrtle Beach, Clyburn said he visits almost monthly.

"You've got friends in important places," Clyburn said with a laugh.

Without Clyburn's blessing, the Congressional Black Caucus Institute would never have considered Myrtle Beach, Dean said. Relatively few black voters live here, and the area is not even in a political district represented by a caucus member.

Even with Clyburn on board, Dean still faced an uphill battle, he said, because only two or three institute board members had ever even visited the Grand Strand. One had only been to Atlantic Beach, and another only remembered a strange political rally in a funeral home.

The institute's attraction to the state, however, was obvious, even beyond its vaunted "first in the South" position in the primary calendar. South Carolina has a far higher proportion of black residents - nearly 29 percent, according to 2006 census estimates - than the other early-primary states that candidates are targeting.

Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada all have black populations of less than 10 percent, the Census Bureau estimates.

"It goes back to what the institute was looking for: Democrats who vote in primaries," said Georgella Muirhead, an institute spokeswoman.

Unbeknownst to the congressman, Dean was also meeting with officials from the Republican and Democratic National Committees. Though neither national party directly controls the site selection for the primary debates, Dean was seeking advice: What does Myrtle Beach need?

Through the national officials' answers - aren't you just a retirement community? do you have an airport? - Dean said he learned that his pitch would have to start from scratch.

"If they don't know if we have an airport, it became clear we had to do a lot selling," Dean said. "For us, it was a lot of effort just to get in the hunt."

Part of Dean's job was to combat the misinformation being spread by competing S.C. cities. At times, national officials were variously told that Myrtle Beach had no hotels, that its airport was an hour away, that it had no venues for a debate and no wireless Internet access.

"There was very aggressive competition from our sister cities," Dean said, noting that Charleston, Columbia and Greenville were all also in the debate chase.

Three critical points followed.

First, Dean persuaded Janice Griffin, an institute board member who helped put on the 2003 debate in Detroit, to fly down for a preview trip in early May. Griffin, Dean said, gave sort of a first look at how the area might fare in his pitch to the institute.

"There were a lot of questions as to whether Myrtle Beach could pull it off," Dean said. "This is the premier political event for the CBCI. It could be taken anywhere in the nation, so they expect their event to be nothing short of perfect."

Facilities, facilities, facilities - the bottom line was convincing officials that Myrtle Beach had the capacity to host the candidates, entourages, journalists and other political hangers-on who would descend on the city. Dean pointed to several specific entities - the Sheraton and Convention Center, the Palace Theatre, and Broadway at the Beach - as particularly convincing for debate organizers.

Second was the visit by the institute's board in early June. Board members seemed initially skeptical, but the turning point was a large dinner with numerous locals - Dean said they enjoyed the dinner so much that their whole demeanor changed. Especially charming, he said, was a volunteer named Sondra Ward, who gave an "impassioned speech" to the delegates.

"She told each of the CBCI members that she was going to pray every day until we got this debate," Dean said.

"They met people who were excited and wanted them to come," Howard said. "They got to tour Myrtle Beach, and see the Myrtle Beach of today. They had to be impressed with what they saw."

Even with the institute's apparent nod, however, a third, critical component of the debate arrangements remained: a network to broadcast it.

"We knew early on we wanted the CBC debate, and South Carolina was really the place to do it," said David Bohrman, CNN's Washington, D.C., bureau chief and creator of several signature programs, including Charleston's CNN-YouTube debate. "It's really a place where African-American issues are going to be critical."

Several other S.C. cities were also pursuing the institute's debate, Bohrman acknowledged. One key selling point for Myrtle Beach was its offseason, meaning it had scads of unused infrastructure; another was the Palace Theatre, a venue Bohrman called "gorgeous."

During a September meeting with network officials, Dean saw what he believed to be one good omen. CNN anchor and debate moderator Wolf Blitzer walked past the meeting room, stuck his head in the room, and asked what was going on. When he heard Myrtle Beach in the answer, Dean said he replied, "Oh, Myrtle Beach. We're going to Myrtle Beach, right?"

Finally, on Oct. 4, the official announcement was made: Myrtle Beach would host a critical Democratic debate, just days before the S.C. primary. But by then, the Democrats weren't the only game in town.

One Republican

In contrast with the Democrats, coordinating the concerns and agendas of an entire organization board, the Republicans presented just one fish to catch: state GOP Chairman Katon Dawson.

Since August 2006, Horry County Republican Party Chairman Robert Rabon was thinking debates.

He would call Dawson to ask him about the city's chances.

"I got told no a whole bunch of times," he said.

The reasons were plenty: Myrtle Beach was, at the time, the 109th advertising market in the country, versus Greenville, which was in the 30s. Seventy percent of people in Greenville voted Republican, Rabon said he recalled. And so on.

"I just kept pecking at the rock, and asking, and working things, and trying to redefine Myrtle Beach a little bit," he said. "Piece by piece by piece by piece."

Party activists would chat over breakfast or drinks. But it was just small talk.

"That was such a pipe dream at the time, I don't think anybody gave any credence to the prospect," Myrtle Beach City Councilman Phil Render said.

Still, Rabon kept at it. He kept giving information about the tourist city, the number of people who come through here annually, and all it's capable of, to top Republican officials.

"Robert Rabon has been harassing me since the entire time he's been chairman," Dawson said.

In 2007, Rabon started speaking with his co-worker at Associated Realty, state Rep. Liston Barfield.

"We talked almost daily about the debate for a long time," Barfield said.

On Jan. 24, legislators from Horry County signed a resolution asking Dawson and the party to consider Myrtle Beach.

Dawson was initially skeptical of Myrtle Beach's ability, Barfield said.

So Myrtle Beach set out to prove it.

"I kind of twisted his arm and arranged a meeting," Barfield said.

In that early private meeting at the Capital City Club in Columbia, Dean wowed Dawson with facts and figures about the tourist city.

"I wasn't aware that 14 million tourists a year go to Myrtle Beach," Dawson said.

"There was no hurdle that they could not get over."

Myrtle Beach City Councilman Phil Render also began phoning Dawson, telling him the city was willing to do whatever it took.

Dawson said having support across various levels of state and local government was crucial, because he knew he would be able to count on them for municipal items such as blocking off roads for security.

Other cities, on the other hand, did not make as much of an effort, Dawson said.

Myrtle Beach representatives were the only ones to actually take the time to drive to Columbia. Dawson and his staff traveled to Charleston.

Myrtle Beach also proved to be the most flexible, with multiple potential venues, thousands of available hotel rooms and the ability to change plans if the dates changed - a real possibility as states kept jockeying for position and influence on the primary calendar.

Greenville's venues were not as flexible if the date of the debate had to be changed, Dawson said.

And Columbia essentially considered itself out of the running from the beginning, because it had already hosted one in May.

Debates are awarded to a city as political favors, Columbia Mayor Bob Coble said.

"Debates go where they need to go politically, and you just need to be there to do everything you can to make sure you have a great experience," he said. "I don't think it makes much sense for cities in South Carolina to compete against one another for things like this."

Though the cities might not have been throwing money around, it was indeed something of a competition.

"We weren't trying to find the highest bidder; we were trying to find the one who could be the most accommodating to us," Dawson said. "Myrtle Beach stood out."

Even with all the hotel rooms and venues in the world, there was still a problem of image.

Some Republicans grappled with the notion of holding a debate in a beach-and-golf resort community, instead of a more historic, established or respected city, Dean said.

Again, Dean spun it to his advantage. Myrtle Beach is not the same Myrtle Beach portrayed in the 1989 movie "Shag." It's a thriving community for people who span demographic categories, he said. It's a new Myrtle Beach - representative of a new South, perfect for anyone who promises to usher in a new America, he said.

It worked.

Dean remembered sitting in the stands at a Myrtle Beach Pelicans game when he got a call from Dawson offering him a contract during the third inning. The contract was signed by the seventh. Dean thinks the Pelicans fell to their opponent, though he doesn't remember who they were playing.

"They lost and we won," he said.

The Republicans' announcement, Clyburn said, could have cost Myrtle Beach the Democratic debate, as some state leaders felt the area was getting too much exposure. "Some people thought we should go somewhere else," Clyburn said. "But I prevailed."

Will it happen again?

Is the political spotlight that's about to shine on the Grand Strand a once-only event? Not at all, Clyburn said.

"It all depends on how people are treated. Myrtle Beach has occasionally gotten some publicity that is not all that favorable," Clyburn said, mentioning racial controversies over the reception of black and white bikers.

"If people are treated with dignity and respect, they'll want to go back again.

"I do believe we could do this again," the congressman continued. "I could see this becoming a sort of tradition. The whole notion that this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing - it doesn't have to be."

Dean laughed when asked if Myrtle Beach might ever host another debate, joking that he wanted to get through the first two before he asked for any more.

More seriously, Dean said the debates should open a floodgate of sorts for citywide events.

"This should lead to large events beyond political debates," Dean said.

In a way, Dean said, that was the point all along.