Last week, Denver City Councilman Charlie Brown reported that 38 of the hybrids donated for use during the Democratic National Convention were missing.
He'd heard that from Paul Lhevine of the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee at a convention recap on Friday, September 5 -- but the following Tuesday, Chris Lopez, spokesman for the host committee, said that all of the cars his group had used were accounted for. And that same day, Damon Jones, one of the last staffers left in town from the Democratic National Convention Committee, said that, at most, two of the donated cars were missing -- but that could be an accounting error, he added, and any confusion would be cleared up by last Friday.
Neither Jones nor Lopez returned our calls asking for an update on September 12, and Brown reports that convention officials have been MIA when he's asked for clarification, too.
But we've found at least some of the cars -- they're now for sale at Colorado Chevy dealers, advertised on TV and radio ads and at www.dnchybrids.com, which touts Democratic National Convention hybrid courtesy vehicles "lightly driven by convention officials and can't be sold as new."
Catch them if you can. -- Patricia Calhoun
