Democrat’s Campaign Changes Plans
Sen. John F. Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president, has accepted an invitation to speak at Unity 2004 on the morning of Thursday, Aug. 5, in the Washington Convention Center, Unity announced today, in a change of plans by Kerry’s presidential campaign.
Devona Dolliole, who has been working with people of color on behalf of the campaign, told Journal-isms that “we have been trying to rework the schedule for the last few weeks” and that the campaign had never turned down Unity. “Everybody was trying to make this happen,” she said.
Kerry is scheduled to barnstorm the country after the Democratic National Convention in Boston ends this week, and it was those plans that had to be adjusted to accommodate Unity, she said.
Unity’s news release said that “President Bush is scheduled to address UNITY 2004 convention attendees the following morning, Friday, August 6, at the Washington Convention Center. Both candidates agreed to also take questions during their appearances. More specific details of the appearances will be announced at a later date.”
“With Senator Kerry also agreeing to appear at UNITY we get a fuller picture of both parties’ top candidates and their views about the issues of most concern in the communities of color, and on the issues within the media industry,” said Ernest R. Sotomayor, Unity president, in the release.
Just Friday, Sotomayor had said:
“We have been told by representatives at Sen. Kerry’s campaign this week that they don’t believe he can work an appearance at UNITY into his schedule because of the bus tour that is planned immediately after the convention. We’ve said we feel an appearance before the largest gathering of journalists ever assembled in the nation is an event that provides a critical opportunity to answer questions we don’t think are going to get asked anywhere else., especially in light of the almost daily proclamations by his campaign and others in the Democratic party about how important the votes of people of color will be this year.”
Today, he told Journal-isms, “if I had to speculate, I would say that they understood that us having the president and not having the Democratic nominee would probably not be a good thing. They were also aware that Secretary of State [Colin] Powell was on the program,” although Sotomayor said he made it clear that Bush and Powell were there to discuss policy issues — homeland security for Powell — and take questions, and not to politic.