Last week Tampa was one of 30 cities invited to bid on the 2016 Democratic National Convention. As we know, Tampa’s Democratic Mayor, Bob Buckhorn, who also doubles as this city’s salesman-in-chief and chief executive cheerleader, was flattered–but not to the point of acting on the bid invitation. The devil was in the details.
The 2012 Charlotte Democratic Convention, which the DNC prohibited from taking corporate money, had major fund-raising problems. Buckhorn doesn’t want to chance it here in 2016. Charlotte planners had to cut millions from their budget and draw on a line of credit.
“If that (DNC) requirement is still in place, I can’t see a scenario that I would be willing to put the city at risk to host that, knowing full well that we couldn’t raise the money without taking corporate money,” said Buckhorn.
Appropriate call. Unless Al Austin changes parties, the city runs a real risk of being on the financial hook–regardless of what those economic-impact analyses say. And the scale of a Democratic convention is greater than its GOP counterpart. And, no, we still don’t have 21st century mass transit. And, yes, it does matter to Dems that most of Tampa’s hotel workers are non-union. And frankly, the turn-around time from the 2012 Republican Convention is less than ideal.
There’s another factor. That sigh of relief is still audible 1 1/2 years removed from the GOP gathering. Serious terrorists–more than anarchy punks–were the worst concern. And MacDill AFB, the nerve center for the wars in Muslim countries, is still down the road from the Forum. We still have vulnerable channels and a bay. And the world will all be watching Hillary’s coronation.
If something awful were to happen here, this city’s image would never recover in our life time. New York still trumps 9/11. But Tampa is nowhere that resilient.
And remember all that speculation about hurricanes? Recall that the mere threat of something brewing in the Gulf led to the cancelation of the first day of the 2012 convention. Think that doesn’t matter?
It might be better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. But it’s probably better to have not bid than to have bid and lost. That’s the reality.
Tampa is likely one and done on political conventions for the foreseeable future. But it’s on our resume.