The big news out of the DNC meeting in Texas this weekend is that Charlotte is planning a bid to host the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Tweets from a couple of DNC members:
Charlotte, NC is making a very, very strong push for the 2012 Democratic National Convention. -JasonRae
Charlotte made announcement it wants convention in 2012. -Dan Slater
And an attendee at the meeting emailed DCW:
NC Members had “Charlotte 2012” buttons on, and there were placards promoting Charlotte at the entry to the General Session yesterday.
We noted earlier that NC Gov. Beverly Perdue has been lobbying DNC Chairman Tim Kaine about the convention, and that Charlotte GOP Mayor Pat McCrory has spoken with Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper about hosting a convention.
No other city has expressed interest yet in hosting the 2012 Democratic Convention.
But on the GOP side, things are moving more quickly. The RNC has sent letters to prospective cities asking them to bid on hosting the 2012 Republican National Convention, and Jacksonville is considering it:
Jacksonville recently received a letter from Republican leaders asking that they submit a bid to be the the host city for its 2012 convention.
"At this point, we really haven't looked at it seriously enough, and we're not sure if we are going to submit a proposal, but we're going to consider it," said Lyndsay Rossman of Visit Jacksonville.
Other potential GOP host cities include Atlanta, Phoenix, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Dallas, and San Antonio.
Click here for previous 2012 convention site selection news.
The GOP has gotten a head start on the Democrats this cycle, naming their Site Selection Committee for the 2012 Republican National Convention:
RNC Site Selection Committee Members
Holly Hughes, Michigan National Committeewoman (Committee Chairman)
Midwestern Region: Kevin DeWine, Ohio Republican Party Chairman Mary Buestrin, Wisconsin National Committeewoman Alternate: Helen Van Etten, Kansas National Committeewoman
Northeastern Region: John Frey, Connecticut National Committeeman Virginia "Ginny" Haines, New Jersey National Committeewoman Alternate: Betsy Werronen, District of Columbia National Committeewoman
Southern Region: Alec Poitevint, Georgia National Committeeman Cindy Costa, South Carolina National Committeewoman Alternate: Ruth Ulrich, Louisiana National Committeewoman
Western Region: Bruce Hough, Utah National Committeeman (Committee Co-Chairman) Lilly Nuñez, Colorado National Committeewoman Alternate: Randy Ruedrich, Alaska Republican Party Chairman
The committee will recommend a host city to the full RNC, which will have the final say on the decision.
As we noted, the GOP has a strange rule that prohibits members of the site selection committee from representing states that will bid for the convention. But I would imagine that any committee member from a specific state would just resign rather than keep a home city from bidding for the convention.
At the Republican National Committee's summer meeting in San Diego, the party took its first steps toward picking a site for the 2012 Republican National Convention. But the GOP has a strange rule that prohibits members of the site selection committee from representing states that will bid for the convention.
There are members of the committee from the states of Michigan, Ohio, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Colorado, Georgia, District of Columbia, Connecticut, Utah, Alaska and South Carolina. Which, in theory, would rule out the cities of Detroit (GOP 1980), Cleveland, Cincinnati, New Orleans, Milwaukee, Denver (Dem 2008 - how soon we forget), Atlanta (Dem 1988), Washington, DC, and other smaller cities.
It's hard to really believe that the RNC would rule out a really viable bid for this reason - much more likely that the site selection committee person would just resign - but for now, we have to assume these cities aren't eligible to bid for the convention. As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes:
We’re less than a year past the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul., Minn., and already the list of 2012 sites has been narrowed.
And Atlanta is a victim of the narrowing. ... Not that our fair city had yet launched much of a campaign, or even said it was interested.
As for the Atlanta bid that never-will-be, state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, a 2010 candidate for governor, declared his intention to bring the 2012 convention to Atlanta during last year’s national convention.
As for cities still in the running, just two tidbits of news:
Meeting this week in San Diego, the RNC has a chance to scope out the self-described America's Finest City. California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring, who lives near San Diego, has already approached Mayor Jerry Sanders (R) about returning to San Diego for the 2012 convention, 16 years after ex-Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) accepted the party's nomination here.
Florida has made a conscious effort to stay off the committee in hopes of returning the convention to the Sunshine State. Republicans and Democrats both held their conventions in Miami Beach in 1972, and the GOP held its 1968 convention there as well. -The Hill
San Diego is certainly a possibility, and Tampa made a serious go at the 2008 GOP convention. But, unfortunately, conventions take place in high hurricane season, and the political parties may be gun shy about choosing hurricane-prone cities. Last cycle, hurricanes certainly hurt Tampa's bid:
Tampa bid organizers said [Ken] Mehlman, [chairman of the Republican National Committee] told them the threat of hurricanes cost them the convention.
And this was before Hurricane Gustav hit Louisiana, causing a one day postponement of the start of the 2008 Republican convention in St. Paul. I wonder if New Orleans or Florida will ever see another convention.
A month after we noted that NC Governor Bev Purdue has lobbied DNC Chairman Tim Kaine about having Charlotte host the 2012 Democratic Convention, discussions about a potential convention bid have continued in North Carolina:
The issue surfaced again last week during a City Council meeting when [GOP Mayor Pat] McCrory told the audience he had spoken with Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. Denver hosted the Democratic National Convention last summer.
“Before we can seriously consider either convention, we need details about the cost,” McCrory said. “It cost a lot of money. We need to evaluate the return on investment.”
Charlotte said officials anticipate that the Democratic National Committee will start seeking bids in the next two to three months and select the site in 2010. McCrory said the city could also submit a bid for the Republican National Convention. -Charlotte Observer
Charlotte bid for the 2000 GOP convention, but didn't get it due to a lack of hotel rooms. At the time it had 17,000, but now the "region" has 30,000 hotel rooms. As a comparison, Denver in 2008 had 40,000 rooms, Boston in 2004 had 35,000 rooms. (The Democratic convention always needs more rooms than the GOP convention).
The other thing to note is the timeline. The DNC announced the dates for the 2008 convention in early November, 2005 (first ever DemConWatch post!), and sent invitations to bid for the convention in late November. Expect a similar timeline this cycle.
We now have the first site to express interest in hosting the 2012 Democratic Convention:
[Gov. Beverly] Perdue said she was lobbying [DNC Chairman Tim] Kaine to bring the Democratic convention in 2012 to Charlotte. -WRAL.com
Given Obama's victory in North Carolina in 2008, having the convention there would be an interesting choice, setting a stake in the ground in the Southeast, just as Denver did for the Mountain West in 2008.
Charlotte was invited to bid for the 2008 convention, but never expressed any interest. They were so uninterested, that 10 weeks after a deadline to inform the DNC they were interested, the GOP mayor of Charlotte said:
The city also received an application for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, but McCrory, who's a Republican, says the city has no plans to submit a bid for that event, either. -DCW
That's right. Ten weeks after the deadline to make a bid for the convention, they announced they weren't going to make a bid. Talk about clueless. Luckily, Charlotte GOP Mayor Pat McCrory has announced he won't be seeking re-election in 2009.
Click here for previous 2012 convention site selection news.
Yesterday, Matt posted on Atlanta as the potential site for the IIE convention in 2012. This, in turn, caused some discussion in the comments about where we should hold our midterm convention. Ergo, a poll.
If you are new to DCW since last summer, I only get 10 choices -- I'm sorry if your pick fave choice isn't there. I selected Philadelphia, Phoenix and Chicago since they were specifically mentioned in the comments. Likewise "a city in Texas" because a number of Texas cities were mentioned. The rest are just areas. We've got some time, so there will be more polls on this topic, and more specific choices as cities announce their interest. For now, if you like one of the comment-mentioned cities, go for it. Otherwise, think in terms of overall geography, or red vs. blue. Use the comments for other specific cities you may have in mind.
We're continuing to track the faint, and they are faint, rumblings about cities looking to host the 2012 conventions. In January, we noted that that the Atlanta 2012 Republican National Convention Bid Committee held their first meeting.
Well, last week the Fulton County Republican Party passed a resolution in support of an Atlanta bid for host of the 2012 Republican National Convention.
Obviously the local GOP in Atlanta is continuing behind-the-scenes discussions on making a bid for the 2012 GOP convention.
We noted back in November that other cities making noise on the GOP side include Phoenix, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Dallas, and San Antonio.
All has been quiet on the Democratic side, where the Obama team will get to decide where to have the convention. The obvious choice is Chicago, which hosted the 1996 and, of course, the 1968 conventions, but it wouldn't surprise me if the Democrats looked at a Texas convention to see if they could make further inroads in 2012.
The 2012 Republican National Convention Bid Committee held a first meeting over the weekend — at the downtown law offices of McKenna, Long & Aldridge.
Chairman Maria Strollo Zack, a state Capitol lobbyist and GOP activist, said about 50 people showed — some party regulars, some from the business community. Coca Cola had a representative there, as did the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Selection of the site of the 2012 GOP convention is on a timeline of about 18 months. Much will depend on who is elected chairman of the Republican National Committee next week. - Atlanta Journal Constitution
We noted back in November that other cities making noise on the GOP side include Phoenix, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Dallas, and San Antonio.
All has been quiet on the Democratic side, where the Obama team will get to decide where to have the convention. The obvious choice is Chicago, which hosted the 1996 and, of course, the 1968 conventions, but it wouldn't surprise me if the Democrats looked at a Texas convention to see if they could make further inroads in 2012.
