On Wednesday, 500 members of the media from outlets across the country and as far away as Qatar and Japan got a logistical briefing and walkthrough of convention sites. During the convention, about 15,000 members will descend on the city.

By choosing Charlotte as the site of this year’s September convention, Democrats had already signaled that the party “is not going to cede any ground” in North Carolina, Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said on Tuesday. In the last election, Obama won North Carolina by just 14,000 votes. With the party in the state and “on offense,” Wasserman Schultz said, it hopes to “keep North Carolina blue just like it helped to turn Colorado blue in 2008.”

As the remaining GOP presidential hopefuls blanket South Carolina and clog its airwaves with negative ads in anticipation of that state’s Jan. 21 primary — and the last chance for a non-Mitt Romney to catch fire — N.C. Democrats are generating enthusiasm in their own ways.

They certainly have something to rail against, namely the General Assembly’s late-night session called to override Gov. Bev Perdue’s veto of a bill that strips a teacher’s group from a dues check-off privilege. Add to that N.C. redistricting squabbles and local disagreements over everything from school board appointments to county commission leadership changes.

Some of the frustration was certainly vented at this week’s meeting of the Uptown Democratic Forum, DNC member Pat Cotham’s monthly session at the Levine Museum of the New South. Members of the North Carolina Association of Educators, the Hispanic-American Democrats of North Carolina and elected officials added their voices. (New Mecklenburg County Commission Chair Harold Cogdell sat across the room from fellow Democratic commissioner Vilma Leake — I felt a chill.)

You don’t have to travel to Iowa to glean the latest on the Republican contest for the presidential nomination. GOP politicians in the Carolinas are weighing in, trying to prove their relevance before the nomination is sewed up and endorsements no longer matter. Democrats look to control the narrative, in North Carolina anyway, as preparations begin in earnest for the 2012 convention in Charlotte. But to do it, they will have to cut through the noise of the contentious GOP contest.

On Tuesday, political observers will be watching the Iowa caucuses, where a confident Mitt Romney is polling close to top contender Ron Paul and the once-surging Newt Gingrich is losing support. Rick Santorum, with an appeal to the state’s religious conservatives, is experiencing his own surge and hoping for a miracle.

When I spoke with Democratic National Convention CEO Steve Kerrigan this past summer, he emphasized his team’s commitment to community service. On Wednesday, he put that commitment in action, as staff of the convention and host committees gathered at Time Warner Cable Arena — the site the 2012 convention — assemble 500 care packages for N.C. troops serving overseas.

For some, it was personal. Judy Corley, the DNCC general counsel, has a 25-year-old nephew, Clifford Corley, serving in Afghanistan as a drone mechanic. “I’m going to send him a box,” she said.

He’ll open it to find a bit of North Carolina: local sports-team memorabilia and coupons for future Bobcats tickets; snacks, including Lance Crackers; scenic postcards; practical items including soap, shampoo, sunscreen, notebooks, pens and AT&T phone cards; and letters from students at Allenbrook Elementary, where DNCC staff members volunteer as tutors and mentors. “We want to give back; it’s part of being an American,” Kerrigan said, praising the community partners that donated items. The troops have “sacrificed so much for our country and North Carolina."

• A registered Independent, 24-year-old Douglas Cole worked for Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2008 and Organizing for America in 2010.

The “class” will expand from 10 to 40 openings for students from colleges and universities in the region, with a Dec. 16 deadline for applications, so there will be plenty of opportunities that range from greeting visitors at the front desk to assisting department heads with special projects. (Students can go to their college career centers for information.)

“Everybody who works here has been an intern at one time,” said Cole. “Everybody was new.” The 24-year-old sophomore, a history major with a minor in education, has always been politically active and seems the one most likely to run for office some day. A registered Independent, he worked for Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2008 and Organizing for America in 2010. Though Cole is earning some credit for a political science class, he said that wasn’t a consideration. The native of St. Clair, Mich., said, “It’s a chance to be involved in something this big in a city I’ve grown to love.”

On Monday, the Democratic National Convention Committee and the Committee for Charlotte in 2012 announced that the team of EventSphere, Akintayo Management Group and It’s My Affair will serve as the convention's housing services vendor.

• Le Monde, whose U.S. correspondent, Sylvain Cypel, was among the handful of international journalists to visit Charlotte

Members of the convention and host committees have insisted all along that the week-long press exposure next September will leave a lasting impression, economic and otherwise. While the sheen of being chosen as a convention city didn’t lure Chiquita’s global headquarters to Charlotte (it was the more than $22 million in incentives and a spiffy airport that trumped Cincinnati’s, said the company's chairman and CEO, Fernando Aguirre, on Tuesday), the DNC certainly didn’t hurt.

Chiquita will join other international firms adding jobs and money, Charlotte hopes, diversifying a city that is branding itself as an energy capital, a health services center and all-around fun place to live and work. It was a message repeated to the handful of journalists in a packed two days of meetings and activities that hit all the expected notes, with visits to vast work sites, an airport bus tour led by aviation director Jerry Orr and a look at all things NASCAR that included a spin around the track.

• www.joespooner.com
• Charlotte and Tampa: "So happy together..."

Last week, both the House and the Senate approved the $50 million grant — that’s $50 million for each city — and on Friday, President Barack Obama signed the bill that included the funding. The mayors of both cities had asked for $55 million each during a joint visit to Washington, but were relieved to receive what past conventions had been allocated.

Mayor Anthony Foxx issued a statement from China — where he was traveling on an economic development trip — thanking Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, as well as Charlotte City Manager Curt Walton, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Rodney Monroe, the DNCC and the bipartisan efforts of the North Carolina congressional delegation. Foxx said the money would help “ensure enhanced public safety measures for Charlotte residents and visitors during the convention.” On Monday, at Foxx's first media briefing after his return to Charlotte, the mayor said he “felt very strongly that we would get it done, and it appears that we have.”

During the debut media tour of the Democratic National Convention Committee’s offices at 400 S. Tryon St. uptown, my first question was, “the 13th floor?” The convention's CEO Steve Kerrigan smiled. "We take the available floor," he said. "We're not superstitious."

The DNC team may not be superstitious, but it's conscientious of local flavor. The 17,500 square feet for the committee's staff of 50 — which will likely expand to include two more floors for a staff of about 200 by next year — is a homey space. Images of President Obama on posters, portraits or framed newspaper front pages mix with the works of local and regional artists.

The walls are lined with paintings in different styles, and photographs — including several of photographer Byron Baldwin’s shots of Charlotte scenes. During the walk-through, painter David Fulton, 31, showed off his abstracts and an Obama image in a conference room. The native of Virginia Beach, Va., has lived in Charlotte for four years. He said he is “definitely” an Obama supporter.

Artist Nellie Ashford told me she’s more of a “behind-the-scenes” person: “I just create.” Ashford talked about a work on display, based on her childhood in rural Mecklenburg County in the 1940s and '50s when she attended a four-room segregated school. The piece shows white children riding on a bus, while outside black children are walking and barefoot; they are all reaching for education, she said, but moving in different directions.