Democrats’ Price Too High for L.A. : City Drops Convention Bid After Party Asks $15 Million

Put away those donkey hats. The Democrats are not coming to town. Having 20,000 Democrats flood the streets in 1992 might be fun, but not $15 million worth of fun--or so the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau said Monday when it decided not to bid for the next Democratic National Convention.

Earlier this summer, the bureau had formally informed the Democratic National Committee of its interest in playing host to the quadrennial bash. But then the committee countered with its demand that the host city put up $15 million in goods and services for the pleasure of the only occasionally successful political party.

“We were just not prepared to do it at this time,” said Lloyd Axelrod, vice president of public relations for the bureau.

“They’re asking for a $15-million commitment!”

Even Mayor Tom Bradley, who fought unsuccessfully for the 1976 Democratic convention, found the amount to be a tad much.

“The mayor does concur in the (bureau’s) decision,” Bradley spokesman Bill Chandler said, dryly describing the financial tab as “rather excessive.”

The bureau’s initial interest in being host of the convention was a calculated gamble anyway. The long-planned expansion of the Convention Center is not scheduled to be completed until late 1992, several months after the mid-summer political gathering. The Democrats might be expected to be picky about their surroundings, given the avalanche of criticism they received after holding the 1988 convention in a matchbook-sized hall in Atlanta.

And there was no assurance that the Democrats would have risked the danger that traffic tie-ups could foul up convention events, which must be tightly planned to play on television. Last year, when the Republicans flirted with holding their convention here, GOP organizers and even some city officials grew apoplectic about the chances for a nationally broadcast traffic jam.

Los Angeles’ withdrawal leaves 16 cities in the running for the convention, including San Diego and San Francisco as the California contingent. San Francisco was the site of the 1984 Democratic convention.

Ginny Terzano, the party’s press secretary, said cities have until Friday to inform the national committee whether they will enter a bid. Final bids must be forwarded to Washington by Nov. 3, and the winning city will be announced next summer.

Die-hard Democrats--Los Angeles County did side with Democratic nominee Michael S. Dukakis last year, unlike most portions of the country--will have another shot in four years.

“Just because we’re not bidding this year,” said Axelrod of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, “doesn’t mean we won’t in the future.”