Why the GOP is holding its convention early
Republicans will hold their 2016 national convention more than a month earlier than their 2012 event for one simple reason: money.
Two years ago, Mitt Romney raised $1 billion but found himself out of cash that August due to campaign finance laws that essentially force candidates to divide their spending between pre-and-post convention accounts. Moving the convention up, the GOP reasons, will help make those rules a non-issue.
The Republican National Committee announced Tuesday that Cleveland would host its 2016 convention — and that the party was aiming for a late June or early July event. The early summer timing is a sharp break with recent history — when both parties have traditionally held their conventions in late August or early September. The GOP hasn’t held a July convention since 1980 and it hasn’t held a June convention since 1948.
But times have changed. The decision of Barack Obama and Romney to forgo election matching funds, along with the explosion of super PACs and political nonprofits, means the old rules on convention timing no longer apply.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/cleveland-republican-national-convention-2016-elections-108681.html
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