June 25, 2014 01:49 PM UTC

Low-Budget Denver Loses 2016 RNC Bid

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• by: Colorado Pols

​That's the word from Brandon Rittiman at 9NEWS today:

Denver is out of the running to host the 2016 Republican National Convention. Cleveland and Dallas are the two finalist cities.

"While we're thrilled to have made it this far, we are disappointed with today's decision," said Pete Coors, chairman of Denver's bid. "Denver has the amenities, the community, the political climate and a proven track record that would have made it the perfect place to host the 2016 Republican National Convention."

It's a bipartisan shame, as the Republican National Convention could have been expected to deliver a similar boost to the local economy as the Democratic National Convention did in 2008. Ironically, the lack of taxpayer dollars to help pay for the convention in TABOR-shackled Colorado might have hurt our bid for the RNC:

Sources close to the negotiations told 9NEWS Denver struggled to match the fundraising effort of Dallas, which has public funds available for attracting conventions. [Pols emphasis]

Organizers of the Denver bid pledged early on to mount their effort with only private money.

You'd think that an all-privately funded convention would be exactly what small-government conservative Republicans want, wouldn't you? We can't help but imagine local organizers thought so.

Apparently, that was naïve of them.