Obama approves, and Phila.'s DNC planners get to work

President Obama had three questions Wednesday night when asked to give his blessing for Philadelphia's bid to host the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

The first two dealt with logistics and were quickly resolved by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, who brought Obama word of her committee's recommendation.

The last, according to a source told of the conversation, turned on the president's need to be assured the convention would be a success, particularly financially so.

Is David L. Cohen onboard?

Yes, was the answer. And so it was done.

The scene, as relayed by Wasserman Schultz to a booster of Philadelphia's efforts, was a reminder that myriad invisible moments and individual efforts drive every significant public success, in this instance, Philadelphia's selection as the site of the 2016 Democratic convention.

And while this civic success certainly has many architects, four in particular stand out:

Rep. Bob Brady, who has relentlessly championed the idea of hosting a Democratic convention even in the face of reluctance by other civic leaders.

Former Gov. Ed Rendell, whose national star power and natural exuberance were said to be keys to selling the DNC, a body he once led, on Philadelphia.

Cohen, Comcast executive and fund-raiser extraordinaire, whose personal commitment to the project was seen as crucial to the winning bid.

Kevin Washo, the 33-year wunderkind who served as executive director of Philadelphia 2016, the group that put together the winning bid and will now oversee the execution of the event.

Along the way, there were a series of critical decisions, participants say, that helped elevate Philadelphia's chances beyond those of its most competitive challengers - Columbus, Ohio, and New York City.

But before any of those, there was Brady, the 69-year-old former union leader and indefatigable Philadelphia booster, who has served in Congress since 1998.

"None of this would have gotten done without Bob Brady. Period. End of case," said attorney Stephen Cozen, who has been part of the team guiding the effort.

Brady first brought the idea to Mayor Nutter in 2010, but the mayor was reluctant to sign on to a bid for the 2012 convention given the time's perilous financial climate.

Three years later, Brady convened a meeting of about 20 civic and political leaders at the Union League and pitched his idea again. This time, he sold it. One key player on the fence, according to multiple sources, was Cohen, who needed an assurance there would be a strong team in place.

Brady's solution? Draft Cohen's old boss and mentor - Rendell - to chair the effort. With that, both were on board.

Brady's decision to bring in Rendell yielded dividends beyond just Cohen.

Rendell threw himself into the sales job with typical abandon. As the New York Post noted indignantly, he even sent newspaper clips to the DNC about bedbugs and overheated subways in New York.

In June 2014, with five cities still in the running for the convention, Rendell led Philadelphia's team to Washington to make its first formal pitch.

"Ed Rendell blew away every other city by a mile, the power of his personality, the force of his presentation," Cohen said. "It put us on the radar screen."

That meeting was followed by a day-and-a-half visit in August by the Democrats' Technical Advisory Group, a panel of nearly 20 experts in security, transportation, and logistics and with experience putting on large events.

This was the city's chance to let the advisers walk through the Wells Fargo Center, get a feel for driving distances, and visit the hotels, from the suites to the loading docks. The experts peppered city representatives with questions, both on the visit and in months of follow-up phone calls and e-mails.

Philadelphia shone when it came to the logistics of moving people and having enough hotel stock to accommodate them.

"Philadelphia's strength in particular was the proximity of their arena and venues to the hotel rooms," Wasserman Schultz said. "When it comes to putting on a convention, delegate experience was a very, very important thing for us."

One asset that weighed heavily in Philadelphia's favor from the start: parking lots, specifically the acres of asphalt in the sports complex.

Those lots, sources said, are vast enough to establish a security perimeter a good distance away from the Wells Fargo Center, while also accommodating tented workspace for a 10,000-person media army and fleet of satellite trucks. (Brooklyn and Columbus had much less space around their arenas.)

One issue continued to loom, however, for the DNC. Could Philadelphia finance a convention?

"They held our feet to the fire on all the different elements," Rendell said. "The one that was the most tense was: Could we raise the money to run a successful convention?"

The question kept coming back to Cohen, who was well-known to Wasserman Schultz and Obama, having raised money for the DNC and the president's own campaign.

His importance to the local effort was emphasized two weeks ago when Wasserman Schultz came to town for a last-minute review of the city's offerings.

Specifically, she told the local organizing committee she wanted a sit-down with Cohen. She wanted a personal commitment that Philadelphia could raise the needed $84 million to put on the convention.

According to a source in the room, she asked him squarely: "Would you give me your word you will do whatever it takes to ensure the host committee's infrastructure gets built out and all promises are kept?"

Cohen said yes. But he balked at taking a formal title, such as chairman of the effort. As executive vice president at Comcast, which owns NBC News, Cohen worried that an official title might create a perceived conflict for NBC.

In the end, he agreed to a title of "senior adviser" to the convention committee.

The workhorse of that committee is Washo, who, as executive director, handles the day-to-day operations and sweats the details. He rarely is in the headlines, but the former executive director of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party deals with all the headaches.

Those who worked with Washo describe him as relentlessly and selflessly hardworking.

"He is an animal," said John J. McNichol, president and chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Washo, a native of Scranton, downplays such praise, dismissing his role as simply "keeping things on track and making sure we have the right people in the right places."

He did acknowledge being more than a little committed to his job, however.

"I know it sounds a little corny, but we wanted to win this for the city," he said. "I'm big-time competitive - maybe it is a Scranton thing, but we just did not want to lose."

To that end, he, and the rest of committee, adopted a somewhat unusual public strategy - silence.

While New York and Columbus engaged in some serious trash-talking and more than a few digs were tossed Philadelphia's way, the local committee never responded in kind - at least publicly. Privately, Rendell apparently did send over those negative stories about the Big Apple.

"I'm proud of the way, collectively, we never went negative on any other city," Washo said.

By staying positive, Washo said, Philadelphia was trying to show the DNC that it could be counted on to be a full partner going forward.

Philadelphia was also less inclined than its competitors to showcase its efforts along the way to the media, choosing not to invite reporters and television crews to every trip to Washington or every trip the DNC took here.

That too was a deliberate strategy, Washo said, to eliminate distractions and send the message that Philadelphia was serious about the effort and not just the attention. He noted that Philadelphia did nothing to trumpet Wasserman Schultz's visit two weeks ago.

"We were not going to have cameras in her face, not going to have reporters chasing her around," he said. "That is not what she wanted. We also were not going to have her surrounded by a gaggle of elected officials."

In the end, it is impossible to measure how much such intangibles might have been worth as party officials focused on technical details: security, transportation, and housing for the many VIPs and supporters expected to attend.

"It's primarily a business decision for us," said Wasserman Schultz. "Philadelphia really had the strongest bid in each of those areas."

Which means Washo, who has worried for months whether Philadelphia would get the bid, has a new concern: how to make it a successful convention.

"I've got to be honest with you," he said Friday. "I woke up today with a little bit of anxiety. I guess that's a good thing."