EVERLY HILLS, Calif. - It's 85 degrees and sunny, poolside at the Beverly Hilton, where the Massachusetts delegation to the Democratic National Convention is camped out for the week. And it's here, amid the abundant bougainvillea, red-and-white-striped awnings, and attentive cabana boys, that Deborah Toledo of Springfield was pondering the expense of it all.
That is, the expense to her.
Unlike those members of the delegation who are elected officials able to draw from their campaign coffers to cover travel costs, Toledo had to use her credit card to get here, charging $3,000 for air fare and the hotel. And that doesn't count one of those candy-colored, virgin cocktails she was sipping from a lounge chair yesterday afternoon. A standard room at the Hilton, the official lodging for Bay Staters, is about $300 a day during the convention.
''I have to pay for everything,'' she said.
Standing over Toledo was state Representative Cheryl A. Rivera, also of Springfield, who also was drawing from a frosty libation and complaining about the price tag.
''There are parties being thrown for thousands of dollars'' all over town, Rivera said, ''and yet there's no assistance to help out regular delegates.''
Needless to say, both were looking forward to attending free events, including a reception last night for their hometown state senator, Linda J. Melconian.
Actually, Melconian's event set off a buzz among some of the delegates, who found it curious that the senate majority leader would hold her reception for the Massachusetts delegation at precisely the same hour as the group's official welcoming party at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
One delegate said the party was a way for Melconian to raise her profile should she run for Senate president, a post now held by Thomas F. Birmingham, who was planning on stopping by her fete.
''It's not a shadow party,'' Birmingham said in her defense.
Some of the delegation had glitzier options.
US Representative J. Joseph Moakley of South Boston toured the set of TV's ''The West Wing'' late yesterday afternoon, staying for a cocktail party where those who play elected officials or political operatives were mixing with their real-life counterparts, including Will Keyser, chief of staff for US Senator Edward M. Kennedy.
But it was not all fun for Moakley.
Earlier in the day, he had sharp words for Governor Paul Cellucci, who is in Los Angeles to offer Republican counterpoints amid the flood of Democratic news. Moakley told a radio station that the governor should be home dealing with his own troubles, including the Big Dig.
