Los Angeles Out of Running as Possible Site of 1988 GOP Convention

The Republican National Committee said Friday that it has eliminated Los Angeles as a possible site for its 1988 nominating convention, ending speculation that President Reagan would get a sentimental send-off from the GOP in his adopted hometown.

A Republican site selection panel has narrowed its choices to Kansas City, New Orleans and Atlanta, party Chairman Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr. said. A final choice will be announced Jan. 20 and presented to the full national committee for formal approval.

“The primary problem for Los Angeles was the access time” to the Convention Center in the weeks before the event, Fahrenkopf said. “Some members also had questions as to whether we could move delegates from all over Los Angeles at 4:30 or 5 in the afternoon,” he said.

For months, it has been rumored that the President and the First Lady preferred Los Angeles as the site for Reagan’s last convention as an active Republican. However, the White House had told Fahrenkopf that it was “neutral” in the matter.

Cites Technical Needs

“The driving force was the technical requirements,” Fahrenkopf said after announcing which cities were cut from the list. Only Kansas City, site of the 1976 convention, which nominated Pr1702062436requirements,” he said.

In a last-minute bid, Atlanta officials pledged to add more seats to the Omni arena and, based on that, won selection as a “conditional finalist.”

The key requirements for the GOP, Fahrenkopf said, were a convention facility that could seat at least 17,000, at least 20,000 “first-class hotel rooms” within an hour’s commute of the center, at least 325,000 feet of working space for the press and “unrestricted access to the main convention area not less than six weeks before the opening of the convention.”

Because of already scheduled meetings at the Los Angeles Convention Center, city officials at first told the Republicans the facility would be open to them only 13 days before the planned start of their convention, on Aug. 15, 1988.

“They got that up to four weeks,” Fahrenkopf said, but “we would have an empty convention hall where we would need” to install seating and other facilities “from ground up.” Other cities offered large arenas already set up for a huge convention.

Other Also-Rans

Besides Los Angeles, the also-rans included Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Seattle and St. Louis.

“We’re obviously very disappointed,” said James Hurst, executive vice president of the Greater Los Angeles Visitors and Convention Bureau. “We spent a lot of time and effort to woo the Republicans, and we felt we had written the book on security and transportation during the (1984) Olympics.”

Hurst said the convention would have brought in about $50 million in business for the Los Angeles area, primarily in the hotel and restaurant trade.

After the GOP site selection panel visited Los Angeles in August, Convention Center officials persuaded the organizers of the California Gift Show to shift their schedule to clear the hall four weeks before the start of the Republican convention.

“The construction people said that was enough time” to set up the hall for the GOP, Hurst said, “but the Republicans said it was not enough time.”

1960 Convention Host

The only national political convention that Los Angeles was host to was in 1960, when the Democrats, meeting at the Sports Arena, nominated John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Fahrenkopf said Detroit, Philadelphia and Seattle lacked hotel rooms near their convention centers. The arenas in Las Vegas and St. Louis were also judged inadequate, he said, and Houston offered a facility that was not yet built.

The Democrats are considering Kansas City, New Orleans and Atlanta for their nominating convention, scheduled for July 18-21, 1988. A site selection committee also has visited New York, Washington and Houston and is expected to announce its choice in February.

When asked by one reporter whether the fact that Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas is one Republican front-runner would give an edge to Kansas City, Fahrenkopf replied: “Well, I would remind you that Kansas City is in Missouri.”

Times political writer Keith Love in Los Angeles contributed to this story.