L.A. Will Go After National Political Convention in 1988

The Greater Los Angeles Visitors and Convention Bureau is planning to seek a national political convention for 1988.

Albert A. Dorskind, president of the bureau, said Friday that the organization’s executive committee met Thursday and agreed to continue a planning process that he believes will lead to formal invitations to both the Republicans and Democrats.

“We agreed to keep tracking this; first we have to find out from both parties what they want us to do,” Dorskind said.

In an earlier interview, Dorskind, who is president of MCA Corp.’s real estate division, said: “We are seriously considering what we can do to get a convention in Los Angeles in 1988. Democrats and Republicans--we’d invite both. But this is all very preliminary at this stage. We need more information.”

According to a memorandum obtained by The Times, James W. Hurst, executive vice president of the Los Angeles Visitors and Convention Bureau, recently informed the bureau’s executive committee that the city convention center is sold out for July, 1988, but is still available for three weeks in August.

Ty Stroh, vice president and general manager of the visitors and convention bureau, said in an interview: “We need people from the (political) parties to come forward and say, ‘Let’s go.’ It’s not too early for that. I understand that there have been people out here checking on hotels and other facilities, but they haven’t come through the bureau yet.”

The last time a national political party held a convention in Los Angeles was 1960, when the Democrats nominated John F. Kennedy for President and and Lyndon B. Johnson for vice president. The Democrats met in San Francisco in 1984.

It has been rumored for some time that President Reagan would like the 1988 Republican convention to be held in California. It would be Reagan’s last convention as President and friends point out that Los Angeles is close to the Reagan ranch north of Santa Barbara.

“The President has indicated that he would like to have the convention in California, but where in California is the question,” said Esther Greene, a California member of the Republican National Committee.

The GOP committee is expected to begin a formal site-selection process early next year.

The Democrats will also begin site selection meetings next year, according to Terry Michael, press secretary for the Democratic National Committee.

“People connected with a number of cities have already told us they are interested in our convention, including Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston, Kansas City and San Diego,” said Michael. “But we have not heard from Los Angeles.”

San Diego city officials recently have conceded that their convention center, now under construction, will not be completed in time to compete for the political conventions.

Stroh said the Los Angeles Convention Center, which is on Figueroa Street near the Harbor Freeway, is large enough to handle either political party’s convention in 1988.

“We can handle up to 14,000 people in Hall A,” Stroh said. “We are going to expand the center but we won’t need the extra space to handle a political convention.” Stroh said the Convention Center expansion probably will be finished by late 1990.

“We’d like to have them (Democrats and Republicans) here,” Stroh said. “We want to make sure the city leaders feel the same way. There is some financial liability.”

Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Tom Houston said that Mayor Tom Bradley, a Democrat, has not been involved in preliminary meetings to seek the political conventions.

A spokesman for Republican Gov. George Deukmejian said, “The governor is in support of a California city receiving the bid to host the (Republican) convention.”

According to the Hurst memo, the estimated spending in Dallas for hotels, restaurants and other items during the 1984 Republican convention was $23 million. The San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau estimated that the 1984 Democratic convention drummed up $50 million in business. However, such estimates are difficult to confirm.

The question facing the Los Angeles Visitors and Convention Bureau is the same one that faces any city seeking a political convention: What will it wind up costing the taxpayers?

Mark Wassenich, assistant budget director in Dallas, said in a telephone interview that most of the costs of the Dallas convention were paid out of a special “national convention fund” that took in $4 million in private donations.

“Out of that fund, for example, we paid $1.5 million in police costs--mainly overtime--and $1.6 million on convention center improvements,” Wassenich said. “The fund also paid for the temporary lighting for the TV cameras, about $600,000.”

No final figures were available for the cost to the taxpayers of the Dallas convention, although a report released after the convention estimated that as much as $1.5 million would be paid from city funds for such things as policing demonstrations away from the convention site.

A spokesman for San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein said that the 1984 Democratic convention cost city taxpayers “about $5 million.” However, a city report after the convention put the cost to taxpayers at closer to $8 million.