Political context After a bitter
primary, Dole had secured the Republican presidential nomination—but at high cost, financially and politically. The Party had lost momentum after President
Bill Clinton successfully co-opted the historically Republican issues of crime and
welfare reform and portrayed Speaker
Newt Gingrich as an extremist. Within his own party, Dole was under pressure from both sides of the
political spectrum. Social liberals such as California governor
Pete Wilson and Massachusetts governor
Bill Weld loudly argued to remove the
Human Life Amendment plank from the convention
platform. On the right, primary opponents
Pat Buchanan and
Alan Keyes withheld endorsements—Buchanan staged a rally for his supporters in nearby
Escondido on the eve of the San Diego convention. Indeed, past comments by Kemp labeling Dole as a tax-raiser surfaced. The long, bitter primary had also left the Dole campaign short of funds as a result of federal election spending limits in the months leading up to the convention. The Dole campaign sought to use the convention to unite the party, to appeal to political moderates, and to highlight Dole's honorable service in
World War II and in the U.S. Senate. Nearly all floor speeches were delivered by moderate or liberal Republicans, including the keynote address by
New York Representative
Susan Molinari, and Dole was nominated by fellow veteran and
Arizona Senator
John McCain. Gingrich, who less than two years earlier had been a star of the party, was denied a prime time slot altogether, as was Buchanan, who had finished in second place for the nomination, with over 200 delegates. However, supporters in the socially conservative
grassroots organizations such as the
Christian Coalition directed the convention to adopt a conservative platform with little controversy, and Buchanan released his delegates at the last minute. The convention ran smoothly overall, and the Dole-Kemp team seemed to benefit in the short term.
Opinion polls taken shortly after the conclusion of the convention showed the Republicans with a significant "
bump" of increased support. However, this bump was extremely temporary, and they continued to trail the incumbent Clinton-Gore team; they went on to lose the election by almost nine points.
Site selection The
Republican National Committee asked 30 cities to submit bids. Their finalist cities were
Chicago,
New Orleans,
New York City,
San Antonio, and San Diego. Chicago withdrew after winning their bid to host the
1996 Democratic National Convention. The 1996 RNC was the first
presidential nominating convention to be held in San Diego, and the only
Republican National Convention held in
Southern California (the
1972 RNC was scheduled for the
San Diego Sports Arena but relocated to
Miami Beach, Florida, due to scandal). Indeed, San Diego's bid had been considered unlikely to win. The San Diego Convention Center was far smaller than its predecessor venues, the
Astrodome in
Houston and the
Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, and its normal seating layout left several sections and skyboxes with obstructed views. Ardent lobbying by Mayor
Susan Golding, who some named as a potential candidate for
U.S. Senate in 1998, and by Governor Wilson, himself to seek the 1996 presidential nomination, helped secure San Diego's selection in 1994.
Bids ;Other bids In mid-February 1994,
Los Angeles, California, withdrew its bid to have the
Los Angeles Convention Center host the convention, citing the previous month's
1994 Northridge earthquake as the reason the city could not afford to finance the hosting of such an event in 1996. In late-March 1994,
St. Louis, Missouri, withdrew its bid.
Logistics was the site of the 1996 Republican National Convention The San Diego Host Committee, "Sail to Victory '96," was organized on September 8, 1995. This was the first national party convention since the 1995
Oklahoma City bombing, which sparked heightened concerns over
terrorism. The possibility that the explosion of
TWA Flight 800 weeks before was a terrorist incident also weighed on convention planners. The Convention Center was located on the waterfront, near a harbor frequented by thousands of small boats—upon one of which Dole and Kemp made their ceremonial arrival. The police,
Coast Guard, and other security presence was massive. Convention planners situated the designated protest area several blocks away from the convention center, sparking criticism and legal action. It was later moved to a parking lot closer to the building which had originally been designated as an
ADA-compliant transportation hub. The convention was successful for San Diego, bringing positive publicity to the city and its revitalized waterfront and
Gaslamp Quarter. The convention committee, however, overran its budget by some $20 million, largely because of the extra costs of security. Due to the limited ceiling height of the convention hall, the podium was elevated a mere above the convention floor, significantly lower than the podium had been elevated at the preceding 1992 Republican convention. Due to the small space in the convention hall, thousands of credentialed convention-goers were relegated to watching the convention via television screens in secondary rooms in the convention complex. To warn speakers when their allotted speaking time was running out, a light was mounted on the podium. The convention even built its schedule to anticipate and accommodate
commercial breaks on the networks broadcasting the convention live. Television pundits expressed their displeasure with how choreographed and non-spontaneous the convention proceedings were, and television viewership of the convention were lower than any previous nationally television conventions. One of the chief Dole operatives tasked with overseeing convention preparations was
Paul Manafort. The cost associated with setting up the convention hall itself were reported to be between $5 million and $7 million. The federal government provided both conventions with $12.3 million in funding in 1996.
Johnson & Higgins provided liability insurance coverage for the convention. ==Party platform==