Kjersti Duncan has tried just about everything to enlist volunteers for the Republican National Convention.

As the volunteer coordinator for the St. Paul-Minneapolis Host committee, she's dressed interns in elephant and a donkey costume to promote "Convention Volunteer Sign-Up Week."

Duncan even convinced Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Ryback and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman — both Democrats — to pose for photos with both party's mascots to drive home the point the RNC is more about showing off the Twin Cities than party rivalry.

But she is still 4,000 short of her goal of 10,000 volunteers.

"We're not worried," Duncan said.

But the lack of volunteers in the Twin Cities is a stark contrast to the situation in Denver where recruiting of volunteers for the Democratic National Convention wrapped up months ago.

So far the Denver Host Comittee has recruited 24,000 people from all over the country to fill the 10,000 to 15,000 volunteer slots. People can still sign up, but their names are put on a "reserve list," according to Chris Lopez, spokesperson for the committee.

"We were very organized on the volunteer process and that stems from early efforts as we started to work on Denver hosting the convention," Lopez said.

Lopez said Denver's effort began more than a year ago, supported by community meetings held throughout the Rocky Mountain region and the host committee's Web site.

Political conventions have historically reached their volunteer goal, though it hasn't always been easy.

In 2000, the host committee in Philadelphia signed up 13,000 volunteers for the RNC in early April, while Los Angeles reached 10,000 volunteers by the end of July for the DNC.

The contrast could be due to the "nature of the city and population" where the respective convention is held, according to Tom Knecht, an assistant professor of political science at Denver University.

"Democrats have typically had more on-the-ground activists," Knecht said, adding Republicans generally have had a larger base of financial donors.

The interest in volunteering for the DNC could be a byproduct of the "Obama-buzz," according to Knecht.

"It's not a forgone conclusion that Obama will win the election, but he's done better in getting activists to get out and campaign," he said. "We haven't had a presidential candidate like this in a long time and people are chomping at the bit to get in with him any way they can."