Southland Not Interested in GOP Convention : Politics: Orange County, San Diego and Los Angeles are already booked for August, 1992.

A lot of Republican leaders are California dreaming these days but are more likely to wake up somewhere else in 1992.

The dream involves putting the party’s 1992 national convention in the electoral heart of the nation’s largest state. Republican National Committee Chairman Lee Atwater, particularly, has been pushing the idea of holding President Bush’s expected August, 1992, renomination somewhere in Southern California, said sources familiar with Atwater’s thinking.

Apparently, however, the Southland is not interested.

The latest blow came from Orange County, in a letter Anaheim Mayor Fred Hunter wrote last month to Atwater to tell him the city would not be able to bid on the convention.

The letter came after both Los Angeles and San Diego officials had made clear to Democratic and Republican leaders that their cities would not be interested.

The question of finding a site for a convention that will not be held for nearly 2 1/2 years may seem premature. But, in fact, such massive undertakings take so long to plan that the decisions are fast approaching. The Republicans have set June 1 as the deadline for cities to bid on being host to the convention, and Democrats may already have announced their choice by then. For now, no California cities are in the running for either party’s convention.

Atwater, who has been fascinated by California politics, reportedly had been particularly keen on having the convention in Orange County, the GOP’s largest vote base in the state. The move for the first time would have put a national convention in a suburban area, allowing the GOP to symbolically focus on the slice of American demography that represents the party’s greatest strength.

Party officials have spent considerable time discussing the “political” pluses and minuses of various sites, said Charles Black, a prominent Washington-based GOP consultant and close friend of Atwater. And, he added, the benefits of holding a convention in Southern California are “obvious.”

But “question number one is who can logistically put the convention on, and question number two is who is going to bid,” said Black. Until those questions are answered, “neither Lee nor the President are leaning one way or another. . . . Anything you hear is pure unadulterated rumor.” Earlier this year, GOP officials inquired about Anaheim’s convention center, said City Councilman Irv Pickler. “The inquiry came in,” but “we have sort of begged off.”

The problem, said Bill Snyder, president of the Anaheim Area Visitor and Convention Bureau, is that the city already had too much hotel and convention business booked for the summer of 1992.

“Associations and large convention groups have made decisions five, six, and in some cases nine years ahead,” Snyder said. “There’s no way you can try to ‘unbook’ that number of groups and come off without deep, deep scars in the association business.”

San Diego officials had offered the GOP a similar explanation for why their city was not interested, GOP sources said. Los Angeles, by contrast, might be interested at some point, but not in 1992. The city’s convention center will be undergoing expansion that summer, and the work will not be finished until early 1993, according to city officials.

Representatives of eight cities met with GOP officials last month to discuss possible convention bids. Three of the cities--New York, Cleveland and Houston--also are bidding on the Democratic convention. The other five that have expressed interest so far are Atlanta, which was the site of the Democratic convention in 1988, Detroit, Kansas City, Miami and St. Petersburg, Fla.

The party’s site selection committee will spend the summer visiting the cities that bid, and the final decision will be made in January. In the absence of a California bidder, Houston, as one of Bush’s adopted hometowns, and the two cities in Florida, the home of Bush’s son Jeb, are favorites in early handicapping.

Meanwhile, the Democrats, who were burned four years ago when the GOP beat them in the race to sign a convention contract with New Orleans, have adopted a speeded-up schedule this year. Ironically, although California cities are turning up their noses at a convention, a number of cities are lobbying hard for the honor.

A Democratic site selection committee already has been wined and dined in New York, Cleveland and Houston, and plans to complete its tour with a trip to New Orleans next week. The committee will meet in mid-May to make a recommendation to party Chairman Ron Brown, who is expected to announce his decision in late May or early June.

Times staff writer Cathleen Decker in Los Angeles contributed to this story.