GOP Convention Wealth Shared

NEW YORK —  The GOP convention could pump millions into the city this summer, but so far much of the cash for planning the event is going to consultants and businesses in Virginia, Tennessee and California.

The convention’s Committee on Arrangements has made payments to a Baltimore printing company, a Dallas Internet firm and numerous Washington-area GOP operatives, according to Federal Election Commission filings reviewed by Newsday.

But the biggest single payment, more than $250,000, went to a California-based theatrical impresario who learned how to choreograph a convention by producing performances by the Radio City Rockettes.

The arrangements committee, housed near Madison Square Garden, has hired about a dozen local staffers and contributed $17,500 to NYC & Company, the city’s tourism bureau. And the convention itself, which runs from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2, will employ thousands of unionized city workers.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg predicts the city will reap a $265-million windfall, mostly in hotel, restaurant, transportation and entertainment spending.

“Hosting the Republican National Convention is good for New York City,” said convention spokeswoman Rori Patrise Smith.

“New York businesses will get the infusion of cash they need, and working men and women and their families will reap the economic windfall.”

Local business leaders, some of them Democrats, are pitching in about $60 million more to pay for additional expenses, including parties and free theater tickets for delegates.

And local Democrats say the Republican Party itself needs to pitch in more of its cash, especially with the Bush administration committed to picking up only a third of the event’s estimated $76-million security tab.

“The Republicans have never done anything for New York City, and I don’t expect them to start now,” said State Democratic Chairman Herman “Denny” Farrell Jr., a Manhattan assemblyman.

The core operations of both political conventions are funded with about $14.6 million in taxpayer money under federal law. As of March 31, the GOP’s committee had spent less than a quarter of that money, mostly on staff, planning and production.

The biggest check written so far, a $236,141 payment on March 30, was made to David J. Nash, a Canyon Country, Calif.-based producer who staged the Rockettes’ Christmas and Easter extravaganzas.

Nash, 69, has worked on every GOP convention since 1992 and is credited with placing a 10-minute time limit on warm-up speakers to keep TV viewers from nodding off. Like many top consultants, he has temporarily relocated to the committee’s Midtown offices during the run-up to the big party.