GOP parties to become charitable events

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL — Just as the tone of the Republican National Convention has changed, so have the parties, as dozens are becoming impromptu fundraisers to help those evacuating Hurricane Gustav.

Huge events hosted by Medtronic Corp., the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Hispanic Leadership Fund will now benefit the American Red Cross and other charitable groups.

{mosads} “Literally calls are coming in by the hour,” said Jan McDaniel, chief executive officer of the Twin Cities chapter of the Red Cross. “It’s a spending phenomenon.”

The Big Easy’s music will play on tonight in the Twin Cities, but there will no longer be free booze at the New Orleans JAM-Bayala party.

The New Orleans event was intended to bring attention to the need to continue to rebuild the Gulf region after Hurricane Katrina. Those going can still buy a beer, but it won’t be free like it was at a similar event last week at the Democratic National Convention.

“We want to cut our costs as much as we can to raise additional money,” said Friends of New Orleans Executive Director Emily Byram.

The event is intended in part to raise funds for the group, which presses for New Orleans and the surrounding area to get resources to rebuild, to restore coastal wetlands and to improve levees and storm surge barriers.

Musicians from the Bayou, including Cyril Neville, guitarist Tab Benoit and “the soul queen of New Orleans,” Irma Thomas, are still scheduled to perform Monday night at Minneapolis’s First Avenue club, made famous in the Prince movie “Purple Rain.”

But Byram predicted the mood will be different from Denver, where the same party brought in $1.3 million for Friends of New Orleans Hurricane Katrina relief efforts even before Hurricane Gustav became a concern to the city.

“We’re all personally affected by [the hurricane],” said Byram, whose family lives on the 17th Street Canal in New Orleans. “There’s still a long way to go since Katrina.”

The event’s hosts include former Louisiana Rep. Billy Tauzin, now a top lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, and GOP political strategist Mary Matalin, who is married to Democratic strategist and well-known Cajun James Carville.

Monday night’s Spirits of Minneapolis party at Solera, co-hosted by The Hill, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Distilled Spirits Council, is one of the events that will now benefit the American Red Cross Hurricane Fund.

A senior representative of the organization will attend and the sponsors are encouraging everyone to make a donation to the fund at the door, which the sponsors will match.

The Hispanic Leadership Fund’s concert — featuring Reggaeton star Daddy Yankee, who endorsed Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) for president last month — also will have tables with Red Cross volunteers and will accept donations. Three thousand people are expected at the concert at MYTH in a St. Paul suburb, including 1,000 local residents who will get in through a local radio promotion.

Organizers originally hoped to use the event to highlight the growing Hispanic population of Minnesota. They still hope to do so, according to the fund’s Mario Lopez, but now they and Daddy Yankee also hope to help the Gulf Coast.

About 1,000 people are expected at the event hosted by Medtronic, a Minnesota company that developed the pacemaker. That event will also benefit the Red Cross.

The “PoliticalChicks a Go Go party” at Minneapolis’s Bar Fly has also shifted into a fundraiser for the American Red Cross.   

“Although this should be a celebratory time for the women of RightNOW!, we are Americans first and foremost,” the sponsors of the event, including RightNOW! and Lifetime Networks, said in a statement. “We understand that there are bigger and more important things affecting millions of Americans living in the Gulf Coast region, and at this trying time our thoughts and prayers are with them.”

Other events are benefiting the Salvation Army and various food cupboards, including a Sunday reception hosted by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R), who encouraged those attending to make donations.

Democrats are also getting involved, with local party groups across the country shifting political events into fundraisers. For example, the Mississippi Democratic Party’s Labor Day party has been changed to a picnic to help Gulf Coast victims. 

Spokesman Damien LaVera said the Democratic National Committee’s focus would be on the Gulf Coast, but that the party should shift its tone if the Republican convention regains a more partisan tone.

The need for help is high, according to Red Cross officials. It had already committed about $12 million toward sheltering the storm’s victims, and officials with the group said the figure would rise dramatically.

The group is already sheltering 50,000 people and shipping supplies and thousands of volunteers to the region.

“We are just overwhelmed with the support that they’ve offered and so thankful for the generosity,” said Michael Spencer, a national spokesman for the American Red Cross.