Illinois GOP Convention May Come To Tinley Park
TINLEY PARK, Ill. (CBS) -- Southwest suburban Tinley Park could be wall-to-wall Republican for a few days next summer.
As WBBM Newsradio's Pat Cassidy reports, there was no official confirmation as of midday Thursday, but the SouthtownStar says the newly-expanded Tinley Park Convention Center might host the 2012 Illinois Republican Convention on June 8 and 9 of next year.
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"That's a great coup for us," the SouthtownStar quotes Tinley Park Mayor Ed Zabrocki. "I'm happy that we were successful in being able to get it here."
Chicago Southland Convention and Visitors Bureau president Jim Garrett says the site may be selected because it sits just off Interstate 80, and because the center has doubled its square footage.
He says the last two Illinois GOP conventions have been downstate and now its northern Illinois' turn.
The event, scheduled to be held during the dog days of the 2012 presidential campaign as candidates are scrambling for votes, likely will draw notable political figures from across the state and possibly the nation, the SouthtownStar reports.
In 2004, then-President George W. Bush's senior adviser, Karl Rove, delivered the keynote address at the state Republican convention in Collinsville.
The SouthtownStar contributed to this report, via the Sun-Times Media Wire.
