GOP Convention Team Studies Anaheim

Republican Party representatives are beginning to consider possible sites for the 1992 GOP national convention, including Anaheim, a stronghold of conservatism in Southern California.

Leslie Goodman, press secretary for the Republican National Committee, said Tuesday that the county’s largest city is one of four California municipalities being studied by the GOP and William D. Harris and Associates, a Washington, D.C., consulting firm.

“Anaheim is one city that is being looked at, but I don’t know if it is even possible there,” Goodman said. “We have a group traveling around right now looking at arenas and ancillary services across the country.”

Members of the consulting firm were in San Diego earlier this month to get information about hotels, convention facilities, parking, transportation, law enforcement and accommodations for the news media.

“It was nothing more than preliminary prospecting to see what was what. Just plain old information gathering,” said Al Reese, vice president of public affairs for the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Inquiries will also be made in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Anaheim Convention and Visitors Bureau officials said Tuesday that they have yet to be contacted by the Harris company.

Once potential sites are selected, the Republican National Committee will notify the cities and give them a chance to apply if they are interested in being host to the convention. A selection committee will then pick a site and submit it for final approval next January to GOP National Chairman Lee Atwater.

“You don’t go out there and just pick a city,” Goodman said. “We have very strict (specifications) for what our needs are. Right now, we can’t say what city looks good and what city doesn’t.”

Key to being a finalist, however, is a convention hall with at least 20,000 seats. The GOP estimates that there are only about a dozen cities nationwide that have a facility that size. If that hurdle is overcome, Goodman said, the area must have good accommodations and transportation because the convention is likely to attract more than 40,000 people.

Anaheim currently does not have a convention hall the size the GOP needs, but a recently approved 20,000-seat sports arena might be completed by 1991.

“We’d love to have it here or anywhere else in Southern California,” said Greg Haskin, executive director of the Orange County Republican Party. “Orange County is one of the most Republican areas in the country, but whether it meets the requirements is another question.”