Running a political convention is a formidable task, but some of the folks with the Republican Party's Committee on Arrangements (COA) have been at it a long time.
Such as Mike Miller, who's worked on 13 different RNC's, going back to the 1964 convention at the Cow Palace in San Francisco when Barry Goldwater was nominated.
Miller was one of a handful of officials with the Committee on Arrangements (COA) who spoke at a press conference in Tampa today at the site of the convention, the Tampa Bay Times Forum. One of the COA's chief responsibilities is making sure that the event is seamless, and that means making sure the 15,000 or so estimated reporters are taken care of.
On Monday the COA hosted its second media walk-through at the Times Forum. Miller told the assembled reporters that he has no idea yet where the security perimeter will be established outside the convention hall. "We never announce it," he said. "But you'll know it when you see it." Another official with the COA told CL at the last media walk-through last December that it would be June at the earliest when that perimeter is established.
That's crucial because, until that is known, the city of Tampa will not announce where the public viewing area (sometimes referred to as the "Free Speech Zone") will be located.
