Officials begin visit to evaluate Minneapolis for DNC convention
Officials with the Democratic National Committee are in Minneapolis this week, the first in a series of visits they're making to the four sites that are finalists for the party's 2012 convention.
They'll be looking at the Metrodome and convention center, and possibly Target Field, as well.
Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak said the group is making a low-key visit focusing on technical details. He said he thinks they'll find the city the best prepared in the country.
"If you're looking for an objective opinion on Minneapolis, you've come to the wrong guy. I think this is the best place to have it," Rybak said. "But I also think we have a good case to make. This is not the same group that was here four years ago. This is the Democrats, who I think really wanted to come here four years ago. So we've put on the best show that we can and we'll see how it goes."
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Jeff Larson, a Republican fundraiser who led the local effort to put on the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, said he thinks the national parties don't consider politics as much as capacity when picking a site for presidential nominations.
"The RNC really approached it in a business-like manner, of 'can the cities raise the money, do they have enough hotel rooms and what does the venue look like?'" Larson said. "You know that at least two of those issues are good for the DNC, and that they have a good venue."
About two dozen protestors also took to the streets of downtown Minneapolis Sunday to express their opposition to the convention coming to Minneapolis. They said security at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul resulted in widespread violations of civil liberties.
Melissa Hill was one of the protesters arrested in Minneapolis during that event. She was one of several dozen people at Target Field Sunday, one of the stops believed to be on the DNC itinerary.
Hill said Minneapolis shouldn't host the Democrats in two years.
"I think it would be just negative," Hill said. "There will be a lot of people going, 'why did the police mass arrest all of these people, why were they using tear gas?' Because that happens pretty much at every one, and it would happen if they came again."
Dave Bicking, of Minneapolis, whose daughter is one of the so-called RNC 8, the most well-known among the hundreds of protesters arrested during the Republican Convention, conceded the group opposing the Minneapolis bid for the DNC was small.
"It's tough to organize for anything that's more than two years before the event we're talking about," Bicking said. "But I think it's important at this stage that the city leaders and the DNC site selection committee know that resistance is already building at this very early date."
DNC officials have narrowed their selection to Minneapolis and three other cities -- Cleveland, Charlotte and St. Louis.
