What Rochester lost when DFL moved convention to St. Paul
Mitch Teich, 6/6/96

Visitors to Rochester this weekend will find an abundance of hotel rooms and parking spaces. That's despite the best efforts of the city, which until recently planned on hosting the Minnesota D-F-L party convention and its thousands of delegates. Minnesota Public Radio's Mitch Teich reports the party's decision to move the convention to St. Paul has stung more than Rochester's ego.

This weekend, hundreds of people will fill the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester for an annual event. Unfortunately for the city's hospitality industry, it's not the event that was expected. The Civic Center was supposed to be the site for this year's state D-F-L convention. Instead, it will host one high school graduation and serve as the back-up for another. Democrats moved the convention to St. Paul after the city of Rochester hired a non-union contractor to renovate the facility. Civic Center Marketing Director Donna Drews says the loss of the convention was a major blow.

355 (:18) We expected 12-hundred delegates for approximately three days and usually they travel with a spouse or friend and family. And so the economic impact that convention would have had on our community is truly significant.

Drews says the Civic Center and the city violated no laws in hiring a non-union-based contractor. The convention had been on the Civic Center's schedule for four years, and was expected to earn the facility around 30-thousand dollars. Drews says the Civic Center was left with little recourse and no compensation when the Democrats announced their decision in April.

505 (:21) The reasoning behind that was the fact that we wanted to maintain a professional relationship for future events. And we felt if we would have been extremely imposing as far as our contract was concerned, we would have jeopardized that relationship significantly.

Drews is optimistic that Rochester will be able to lure a future D-F-L convention to town. She concedes, though, the city's next chance is for the year 2000, and it may be an outside shot at that. Luci Passe is the president of the Rochester Convention and Visitors Bureau and Director of Marketing for Kahler Hotels, which operates four hotels in downtown Rochester. She says the convention would have pumped around a half-million dollars around the local economy.

115 (:12) The people who are coming into the community would spend money in the gas stations, they buy gifts, they go shopping, they attend the movies and theater. They even go to church and put money in the offering plate.

The convention's move also puts a sizeable crimp into the plans of Southeastern Minnesota Democrats. Mary Rieder, who is running for Congress in the First District, says she was looking forward to showcasing her campaign in an area known as a Republican stronghold. But she says she supports the D-F-L's decision, and the message it sends.

135 (:19) I think the local trades were showing their displeasure about not receiving the contract for the Civic Center. There were some definite questions about whether or not they could have awarded it to the union, rather than to the company that did get it, and we simply couldn't cross the picket lines.

Rieder says she doesn't expect the move to have a lasting impact on her campaign. But one group that says it stands to benefit this weekend is area Republicans. They plan a major rally and party in the absence of the D-F-L convention, with appearances by Lieutenant Governor Joanne Benson, Congresman Gil Gutknecht, and others. Mike Alm, the manager of Gutknecht's re-election campaign, says the withdrawal of the convention afford the Republican party an excellent public relations opportunity.

315 (:14) We couldn't undo all the damage, but we're just trying to send a message that we're common-sense people, and we want to help out as best we can.

Alm says the Republicans' rally is unlikely to draw the 3-thousand people the DLF convention would have brought to town. But it's not all bad news for Rochester's convention industry. While the Mayo Civic Center won't be packed this weekend, it will see heavy traffic next week, as the League of Minnesota Cities *will* hold its convention there. For Minnesota Public Radio, I'm Mitch Teich in Rochester.