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The biggest unknowns facing the hosts of the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August all relate to the question mark that remains concerning the party’s nominee.

A contested convention, or one that leaves a substantial number of Democratic voters bitter about the process or the winner, could seriously hurt this midsize city’s ability to fund the event, handle protests, and heal—temporarily, at least—divisions in the party that have reverberated recently in local politics.

At this point, most political experts—even those who might secretly enjoy a chaotic convention—agree that big problems are unlikely. “I think [Democrats] will probably come together over all these issues,” said Floyd Ciruli, a prominent Republican consultant. “None of it is insurmountable.” Compared with Boston or New York, where the 2004 national conventions were held, Denver is a peaceful, manageable city with a tradition of political civility. “People [here] are nice,” said Michael Kanner, a political scientist at the University of Colorado. “I think that matters.”

Denver missed its convention fundraising goal in March, the second time that has happened, and city officials say that the unexpectedly long primary contest is a major reason. The city’s contract with the Democratic National Committee requires Denver to meet certain benchmarks on the way toward guaranteeing $40.6 million to pay for the convention. Fundraisers missed the $7 million goal last summer, met the $15 million target in December, and then fell $5 million short of the $28 million that the contract required the city to have on March 17, according to Chris Lopez, a spokesman for the Denver host committee. In addition to the cash, the city promised to come up with $14.4 million worth of donated products and services.

Denver is the smallest city to host a political convention since the 1988 GOP convention in New Orleans and the Democratic conclave that year in Atlanta, and its ability to finance the convention has been an issue from the start. With a population under 600,000, and a metropolitan area of 2.5 million, Denver lacks the long list of large corporations that typically put up the lion’s share of money for political conventions. Qwest Communications, the regional phone company, is Denver’s largest corporation, and most local businesses that finance the convention, such as Vail Resorts, are much smaller.

Lopez and city officials blame the extended contest between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama for the failure to meet the fundraising goals. In 2004, John Kerry wrapped up the Democratic nomination in early March and effectively joined the effort to raise money for the convention in his home state. Even so, Boston raised nearly a third of its $54 million total after July 1, and it wasn’t clear until the delegates convened that the city would come up with enough money. In the end, a last-minute push brought in $3 million more than needed.

The fundraising benchmarks are designed to ensure that the party does not get stuck with the convention tab. If Denver falls short, it will have to borrow the money and continue fundraising after the Democrats leave town. Mayor John Hickenlooper has vowed that no taxpayer money will be used to fund the convention.

In the past few weeks, a dispute between city police and local anti-war activists has raised the potential for civic conflict. Under the slogan Re-create 68, the activists are hoping to generate as much attention as protesters at the Democratic convention did in Chicago, with one important difference. Glenn Spagnuolo, a spokesman for the group, says that it is committed to peaceful protest, and that he does not expect Denver police to react as violently as Mayor Richard Daley’s force did 40 years ago.

Nevertheless, Spagnuolo accused the city of trying to limit protesters’ access to prominent public spaces by imposing a new “extraordinary event” rule that outlaws overnight occupation of parks. Spagnuolo said that his group will defy the police and occupy Civic Center Park, a green expanse between the Colorado Statehouse and City Hall.

Sonny Jackson, a spokesman for the Denver Police Department, denied that the city had changed the rules to restrict political protesters. He said that Spagnuolo’s group, registered under a variety of names, has been granted access to several parks, some of them within sound and sight of the Pepsi Center, where the convention will take place.

City officials say that Re-create 68 is a decidedly local organization, and that those behind it have never mustered more than a few thousand people for rallies over the years. Officials see no sign that large national peace groups, such as CodePink, will be mobilizing in Denver.

But both sides agree that this low-key scenario could change, depending on the nominating process. If the nominee is still in doubt when delegates reach Denver—something that hasn’t happened since the 1976 Republican convention in Kansas City, Mo.—it is hard to predict what will happen. “Obviously, we’re planning for all contingencies, and that is one contingency,” Jackson said. Large-scale political rallies in support of the two rivals would be likely—and the ranks of political protesters could swell.

Spagnuolo says that Clinton’s nomination would significantly expand the number of anti-war protesters from outside the area because she is perceived as a stronger supporter of the war than Obama. Disappointed Obama supporters would likely come to Denver to register their disappointment in person, he added.

The GOP’s Ciruli contends that a Clinton win engineered by superdelegates and party elders that overrides a popular-vote majority for Obama could attract a lot of protesters.

Although Denver has hosted large sports events, the city has limited experience with political protests; the largest was probably a peaceful gathering of 75,000 last year to protest federal efforts to tighten immigration laws. Congress has appropriated $50 million to pay for security at each of the political conventions this year, an amount that will support 2,000 to 2,500 police officers from Denver and up to 40 nearby departments, supplemented by an undisclosed number of Secret Service, FBI, and other federal law enforcement officers. This is significant increase over security costs in Boston, which totaled $28 million.

Meanwhile, a fight between labor unions and some of the state’s Democratic leaders is simmering, and could cause discomfort in August for the convention’s hosts. Since Democrats won control of the state Legislature in 2004 and the governorship in 2006, labor unions have been expanding their influence after a decade of Republican rule. Recently, labor leaders have used the convention to justify pressing for more gains.

The bad blood began when local Teamsters officials sought the city’s promise to hold the convention at the older Colorado Convention Center, where workers are unionized. But the city insisted on using the newer, nonunion Pepsi Center. Only 7 percent of Colorado’s private workforce is unionized; even in heavily Democratic Denver, most public employees do not belong to a union. A third of the 6,000 Democratic delegates are union members, and typically most delegates try to stay at unionized hotels. But Denver has only one, and efforts to organize other hotels have fizzled.

Union leaders are also angry that Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter vetoed a spate of union-sponsored proposals in 2007 to rewrite workplace rules in the state. Perhaps to assuage them, Ritter issued an executive order in November extending collective bargaining rights to most state workers. Nevertheless, Teamsters President James Hoffa told Ritter at a dinner in Washington this month that labor remained unhappy with Colorado, and that this unhappiness might “blow up” during the convention.

In Denver, Hickenlooper was elected without the support of police, fire, or teachers unions, and the Democrat has tried to steer a centrist course, proposing modest pay increases for city workers. But the City Council, which has closer ties to unions, forced through a 14 percent pay raise for police over the next three years.

Most recently, Teamsters officials and several council members have argued that the council has the power to grant collective bargaining rights to those city workers (a majority) who don’t have them. Hickenlooper and the city attorney’s office argue that this must be done through a ballot initiative, and the dispute may go to court before the convention. Hickenlooper ducked a separate labor conflict and avoided the prospect of a strike or job action during the convention when the city extended a contract for parking lot attendants at Denver International Airport.

Eric Sonderman, a Democratic consultant in Denver, said that none of these issues is serious enough to trigger a union boycott or picketing, but he added that together they could sour the mood for Democratic delegates. Many Coloradans, Ciruli says, see the concessions to labor as an added “cost” of holding the convention. “If these costs keep rising, at some point people decide the cost is too much,” he said.