It’s probably between Dallas and Las Vegas for the 2016 Republican convention. Quite a study in contrasts (except for the summer heat). Social-issues conservatives are coming out hard against Sin City, surprise, surprise. Never mind casinos: 64 pages of ads for escort services in the Yellow Pages gave them plenty of ammo. While local political shaman Billy Vassiliadis is right that opponents of Vegas are working off an outdated image of the city, it’s not changed entirely beyond recognition. Imagine the cultural shock when Bible Belters venture onto the Strip and have to run a gamut of porn-slappers.
In pragmatic terms, it should be hard to make a case against Vegas. Republican National Committee Chairman Rence Priebus enumerated the criteria as: “the ironclad ability to raise about $60 million, to provide a secure setting and to reliably transport and comfortably house, in close proximity, tens of thousands of party faithful, dignitaries, reporters and assorted hangers-on.” Heck, we’ve even got a monorail to deposit thousands of conventioneers at the doorstop of the Las Vegas Convention Center. We’d seem to qualify in every particular.
But Priebus also has to mollify bluenoses like the ones who wrote him that “In spite of ‘family-friendly’ outreach in the past decade, Las Vegas remains a metaphor for all things decadent.” True, and that’s unlikely to remain so, especially given the promotional efforts of the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, which commissions millions in salacious ads by Vassiliadis’ R&R Partners. In pragmatic terms, Vegas should be a no-brainer for the RNC. Unfortunately, the heart of the party must be placated, too, giving Priebus a tricky tightrope to walk.
There’s no shortage of lobbyists for New York State casinos, even for “mysterious paper-only creatures with no websites, no offices and not so much as a slot machine to call 
their own.” Four hundred grand has already been spent and we’re just in the earliest stages of the selection process. No surprise, lobbyists who are tight with Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D, right) are likely to be hired, seeing as this is his baby. Some of the largesse is slopping over into the re-election campaign of Cuomo and his GOP adversary, Rob Astorino. (Casino interests slightly prefer Cuomo, $55K to $43,500.) The current administration is keeping mum, perhaps with past ethical missteps in mind.
Not that the process has not already been without intrigue. Casino bidders had a mandatory meeting with the state. One of those in attendance was a surrogate of Och-Ziff Real Estate‘s mysterious NYS Funding LLC. “Mark Schwartz, a representative of the company, bolted from the room when a reporter asked him his name and affiliation, then fled down a hallway.” If that’s a harbinger, we’re in for a colorful process.
