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The butcher, the baker, the microchip maker all stand to profit handsomely in the weeks ahead as the headlong scramble to snare dozens of lucrative contracts for the Democratic National Convention finally begins.
Although six months remain before the opening gavel, 56 hotels, two phone companies and a giant airline already have locked up deals with the Democratic Party. But the convention bonanza isn't limited to corporate giants.
The big winners in the bidding include a consortium of minority insurance brokers, a discreet group of former Secret Service agents in Bethesda, Md., and the owner of a small Greek delicatessen in Herald Square.
And there's a lot more up for grabs. Everything from balloons and bunting to messengers and microphones will be contracted out as the Democratic National Committee awards some 100 contracts totaling more than $5 million between now and the convention's start July 13.
Added to the four contracts and multiple subcontracts valued at nearly $4 million from the city's Economic Development Corp., or EDC, there's a faint glimmer of good news and economic opportunity.
"We're reaching out to small, women-owned and minority-owned businesses from all five boroughs like never before," says Henry Miller, chief executive of New York '92, the public-private hybrid organizing the convention.
Those kind of companies are responding in kind--and in droves.
"We've never seen anything like this," says Charles Howell, the city's convention coordinator and chief negotiator. "We're hearing from companies we never otherwise would have...