Democrats Pick Atlanta as ’88 Convention Site

Democrats today chose Atlanta for their 1988 national convention, heading for the “heart and the capital of the South,” party Chairman Paul Kirk said.

The party’s site selection committee voted 44 to 13 to send the convention to Georgia over runner-up contender Houston.

The Republican Party decided last month to hold its convention in New Orleans.

Today’s Democratic public meeting and vote was the final act of a mostly private decision-making process for the convention, which will attract about 35,000 Democrats, reporters and spectators and will be held July 18-21, 1988.

Kirk Made Final Decision

The final decision was Kirk’s, with the vote in the public meeting orchestrated at a private breakfast earlier in the day.

Houston boosters on the committee were conciliatory. “I think the process has been fair,” said Sam Dawson, a Houston supporter.

But others were upset.

“In light of overwhelming support for Texas, Kirk pursued his own agenda,” said Joe Russo, chairman of the Houston host committee effort. “It seems to me that the Democratic National Committee is going to have a lot of difficulty in Texas because of the chairman’s heavy-handedness.”

Kirk had shown no public preference among the five cities officially in the running, including Kansas City, Mo., New York and Washington.