In 2016, on a yet-to-be-determined date in June, Republicans from across the country will gather somewhere to pick their next presidential nominee. Maybe it'll be Chris Christie. Or Rand Paul. Perhaps a Jeb Bush-Ted Cruz ticket? Yes, that last one is stupid, but so is speculating on a race that's more than two years from being decided.
Considerably less stupid is trying to figure out where the Republican Party will decide to have the event. Dallas, we learned this week, is in the running.
"[A]fter careful consideration, the City of Dallas is enthusiastically throwing its hat in the ring!" Mayor Mike Rawlings wrote in a letter, cosigned by former Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. "There is no better time than 2016 and no better way than this event to showcase our dynamic city to such an expansive array of media, delegates and families who will, in turn, bring great economic impact to our city while here."
Problem: Dallas' bid package is due on February 26, and it's just now getting under way. That leaves city leaders all of a week to line up $50 million and a plan to accommodate the13,000 delegates and politicians who will flood into town, plus entourages, media, and various other hangers on.
"We are playing catch-up fast and furiously, putting the bid together," Phillip Jones, president and CEO of the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau, told The Dallas Morning News.
So fast and furious is the effort that the fundraising letters are landing in some unexpected mailboxes. Like that of National Jewish Democratic Council Chairman Marc Stanley:
Who knows. Maybe a sense of civic pride will overwhelm the Jewish Democrats' partisan leanings, just as Rawlings, a Democrat, is putting his aside. So, it's worth a shot?
(h/t Michael Li)
