I tell you I’m shocked. After months of reading story after story about how tough it was for the Denver host committee to raise its goal of $40.6 million to pay for the Democratic National Convention, the Denver Post reports that planners have succeeded.

The story gives props to Mayor John Hickenlooper for being “tenacious,” and points out the efforts also to lobbyist Steve Farber, of Brownstein, Hyatt who “staked his reputation on getting the bills paid, reaching out to contacts near and far.”

Hickenlooper is quoted noting that Sen. Barack Obama’s decision to give his acceptance speech at Invesco Field was quite helpful in raising cash. “With Invesco Field, you can do much nicer packages,” he said.

Earlier the Denver Post had reported that top fundraisers for the “Obama Victory Fund” were offered club-level seats for $1,000 apiece, and that some of the biggest donors to the host committee were getting “ultra-plush suites”:

Separately, almost all of the 131 private luxury suites, which seat from 14 to 20 people, are being granted to big donors and party officials. Corporations such as Xcel Energy and MolsonCoors, which have donated more than $1 million to the Denver committee hosting the convention, have been granted suites. So have party VIPs including Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Gov. Bill Ritter and Sen. Ken Salazar, who have served the host committee as fundraisers.

I never doubted that the host committee would meet its goals. With a big soft money loophole allowing corporations, special interests, and wealthy individuals to give unlimited amounts of cash to the host committee, with all that organizers were offering in terms of special access–well, let’s just say I had confidence they would be able to pull it off.

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