Now that we have our three finalists (Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Tampa Bay) and a date let's take a look at average temperatures around August 27th in each city.
Phoenix: The average temperature is 105 degrees in August and 99 degrees in September.
But it's a dry heat.
Salt Lake City: The average temperature is 88 degrees in August and 78 degrees in September.
Tampa Bay: The average temperature is 90 degrees in August and 89 degrees in September.
The three cities under consideration to host the convention: Tampa FL, Salt Lake City UT, and Phoenix AZ. Looking at this list, is it fair to call Phoenix the frontrunner? One, the GOP needs to make a western and Hispanic comeback to win the White House. Two, does the GOP and potential nominee Mitt Romney want a focus on the Mormon church during a Salt Lake convention? Three, while Tampa hasn't been hit DIRECTLY by a hurricane in quite some time, it's the heart of hurricane season; can the Republicans risk that? - MSNBC
Stay tuned for more comparisons of the three finalist cities and (eventually) news about the Democratic National Convention.
The GOP has announced that they will hold their 2012 convention the last week in August, starting August 27.
If you do a Google search for "convention 2012 aug 27", what do you see? A post I did almost 4 years ago urging the Democrats to pick this week for their 2012 convention.
Whats the fourth entry in Google? A post I did 2 months ago, urging DNC Chairman Tim Kaine to announce August 27 as their 2012 convention date.
This forces the Democrats to hold their convention the first week in September, up against school starts and the opening week of NFL football. And it could all have been avoided...
Members of the Republican National Committee are expected to visit Tampa next month to meet with organizers of Tampa's bid to host the 2012 GOP National Convention.
Details of the visit are still being worked out, but Al Austin, a developer and Republican fundraiser who chairs the bid committee, said the site selection committee will visit March 28 and 29 to look at facilities, roads, security and transportation options.
"We'll be taking them around and showcasing what the city has to offer," he said.
The RNC press office in Washington D.C. declined to comment on the visit. - Tampa Tribune
The article also says that a decision is expected in May or June.
More evidence that Matt knows more about conventions than just about anybody in the country...
Nevada got a lot of attention in the 2008 presidential election for its status as a politically important swing state, but the Silver State's growing clout won't help Las Vegas land any major political conventions.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., revealed in a press event this morning that the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority turned away a bid to hold the Democratic National Convention here in 2012. The authority had already booked business for that time period in its Las Vegas Convention Center, Reid said, and the agency's officials didn't "want" the political powwow.
Authority spokesman Vince Alberta confirmed the move, and added that the bureau sent formal letters in January to organizers of both the Democrat and Republican national conventions pulling Las Vegas out of the running for the candidate-coronation ceremonies. - Las Vegas Review Journal
A tourist city like Las Vegas doesn't need the convention's business - they would probably lose more by having to cancel previously scheduled conventions.
Utahn Bruce Hough relinquished his spot on the selection committee for the 2012 Republican Convention because Salt Lake City has been named one of the three finalists for the massive political gathering....Republican National Committee rules don't allow any city to stack the deck, so an Alaskan is taking Hough's place. -Salt Lake Tribune
Dems have begun accepting bids for their own convention, but they have yet to take even preliminary steps in picking through those cities. DNC chair Tim Kaine has not even set up a site selection committee yet.
Seriously, what is the DNC waiting for? Are they not planning to have a traditional convention in 2012???
7. Mitt Romney has a whole lotta unpaid SLC parking tickets from 2002.
3. Since global warming doesn’t exist, the temperature in August will be a nippy 105 degrees.
1. Salt Lake County’s dead-hooker cleanup budget will likely be depleted by 2012.
Needless to say, the more traditional Salt Lake Tribune has a different take:
We can't think of a place more welcoming to Republicans than Utah. This state would be honored if the party chose Salt Lake City as the site of its National Convention in 2012.
We've got the facilities. The Salt Palace Convention Center was rebuilt for the 2002 Winter Olympics and has been expanded again since. The crown jewel of a redeveloping downtown, the new City Creek Center, will be finished and open for business. The GOP couldn't pick a better time to see our capital city at its best.
But beyond the buildings, the inspiring story of the Latter-day Saints and Temple Square, the magnificent Wasatch Range and five national parks, it's the political spirit of the place that Republicans would find most congenial.
(long, boring stuff about how red Utah is)
In short, Republicans should bring their convention here. They would feel right at home.
Houston officials, along with the new administration, are now discussing the possibility of hosting a 2012 convention. If the city decides to move forward, a bid would then be submitted to the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee, if the RNC will still accept our bid since the deadline has passed.
"There are many factors to be considered when going after a major political convention," said Greg Ortale, president and CEO of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau. Ortale, who has been involved in four political convention bids including the Minneapolis/St. Paul bid for the 2008 Republican National Convention, understands the osts associated with these events. ... "We need to assess the realistic chances of a successful bid and if it is the wisest and best use of community resources -- both on the convention and on improving our infrastructure."
Does this mean they were for the convention before they were against the convention before they were for the convention?
After hearing that there were only 3 finalists, Houston may have just emerged as the mystery 4th finalist to host the 2012 Republican National Convention.
The RNC has narrowed its search for a '12 convention location to 4 cities, several party sources tell Hotline OnCall.
In a vote at the Winter meetings in Honolulu late last week, the party narrowed its search to Salt Lake City, Tampa, Phoenix and Houston.
The RNC's site selection committee, headed by MI committeewoman Holly Hughes, will visit each of the 4 cities later this year to go over logistics, examine hotel and conference capacity and the facility for the convention itself. An RNC spokesperson declined to comment for this story. - Hotline
We attended the 1992 GOP convention in the Astrodome, and we are still scarred. The fawning coverage, the avalanche of rich white people trying not to mingle with crazy-conservative white people, the stage set that looked like a Roman temple: The only good thing that came out of it was Molly Ivins' quip that Pat Buchanan's wack speech probably "sounded better in the original German." So please, people, pray for Salt Lake City. Or Tampa. Or Phoenix. They all deserve this more than we do.
The convention would be held in late August or around Labor Day of 2012.
It's not an official statement, but what does this line tell us? Well remember, the party in power, this cycle the Democrats, gets to have their convention second. (It's just an unwritten agreement between the parties). In 2008, the Democrats early on (November 2005) announced they were taking the last week in August, forcing the GOP to Labor Day week, and a McCain speech the same day the nation's attention was turned towards opening day in the NFL.
Now if the GOP was truly focused on the last week in August, that would force the Dems to the first week in September. September is an especially bad month for the Democrats, as a they have a relatively high proportion of teachers among their delegates.
But if the GOP announced they were going the first week in September, that would put the Democrats in a real bind. The second week in September starts to hit legal deadlines for finalizing November ballots. Going before the GOP would deprive the Democrats of their second position. But I don't think the GOP wants to have their convention the first week in September, so I don't think this scenario will happen.
So what should the Democrats do? Same thing I recommended last month, and almost 4 years ago. Announce the Democratic convention for the last week in August, and force the GOP to go 1 week earlier. Phoenix or Tampa in mid-August? Hot enough for you?
We told you earlier today that we thought Phoenix was one of the finalists to host the 2012 Republican National Convention.
Phoenix has been named one of three finalists to host the 2012 Republican National Convention, local officials said Monday.
Members of the Republican National Committee made the decision over the weekend during their winter meeting in Hawaii. They notified the Phoenix Convention and Visitor's Bureau, which submitted the bid, that the city had made the short list.
The other finalists are Salt Lake City and Tampa.
A RNC site-selection committee will visit the three cities in March and April. The 13-member panel is expected to choose a host city by late spring, though that decision will have to be ratified by the full RNC at its summer meeting.
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, who has been working on the bid with Arizona Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen, said that hosting a political convention makes good economic sense for the recession-battered state. The 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver generated about $266 million in economic spending in the region. - Arizona Republic
The article above isn't the only place saying that there are three finalists. The other source is Fox News. Fox probably has a bureau at RNC headquarters so it's got to be true.
We've been saying Phoenix, Tampa and Salt Lake City for weeks now and no other city has been mentioned anywhere so we're not surprised.
Tampa joins Salt Lake City as one of the four finalists to host the 2012 Republican Convention.
Tampa is a finalist in a bid to host the 2012 Republican National Convention.
Travis Claytor, spokesman for the nonprofit Tampa Bay & Co., which submitted the bid, said Tampa is one of four finalists selected by the Republican National Committee.
The RNC will send a team to the city as part of the final selection process this spring. The official site for the 2012 convention is expected to be named by late summer.
Tampa was among cities considered to host the GOP convention in 2004 and 2008 but lost to New York in 2004 and Minneapolis-St. Paul in 2008. - Tampa Bay Online
Our money is on Phoenix as one of the two unnamed finalists.
The 2012 Republican Convention 14-member site selection committee met in Hawaii on Friday, and chose 4 finalists to host the convention. Salt Lake will be visited by the site selection committee this spring:
"It's going to be exciting. Just to have them come here and give them the big show is very beneficial for Salt Lake," said Jeff Hartley, chairman of the bid committee assembled by Gov. Gary Herbert. "We expect to show them why the world had such a great experience during the Olympic Games and what the greater Salt Lake area has to offer." -Salt Lake Tribune
Also, we should know the other three cities on Monday when the finalists have a briefing with the site selection committee. Twelve-to-sixteen cities (including potentially Phoenix, Denver, San Antonio, Tampa, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, Houston and Indianapolis) were invited to bid for the event, and we would be surprised if Phoenix and Tampa were not two of the other finalists. A final decision is expected in May.
There is also a report that the GOP convention will be held the last week in August, but DCW is not aware of any official announcements of the Republican convention date.
Salt Lake City officials traveled to Washington on Friday to make a presentation to Michael Steele and the RNC on Salt Lake's bid to host the 2012 Republican Convention:
If you ask Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau President Scott Beck, Salt Lake City has a better than good chance of hosting the Republican National Convention in 2012.
Beck and other partners who are teaming up for the bid, including Utah Jazz owner Greg Miller, visited the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Friday to make a presentation on what could be one of the biggest moneymakers for the city in a long time. Beck said he's confident that RNC Chairman Michael Steele enjoyed what they had to say.
"We were extremely well-received," he said.
What other cities are bidding?
At least 15 other cities are competing for the same bid, including Tampa Bay, San Antonio, Houston, Denver, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix and Indianapolis, among others.
Not sure I believe the list. It's very unlikely Denver would be interested in doing another convention so soon after 2008.
Several other cities -- believed to be Tampa, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Antonio, Houston and Indianapolis -- are vying for the convention as well.
Basically the same list, except Las Vegas instead of Denver, and that's another city I don't believe. A tourist city like Las Vegas doesn't need the convention's business - they would probably lose more by having to cancel previously scheduled conventions.
And what does the timeline look like:
The goal of last week's presentation was to "make the final cut," Beck said, as one of four finalist cities. The final four will be announced in March and city inspections will begin in April of this year.
There's no doubt the GOP is moving much faster on their site selection process than the Democrats.
While there are probably several cities in the mix that we don't know about here is a list of those we do know are interested:
