I was invited to the Republican National Convention 2012 in Tampa, Florida as a guest of the California delegation rather than a voting delegate. My guess is that this privilege occurred mostly because I had given more than $4000 to the Romney campaign. The privilege entitled me to give another $1000 plus pay for my hotel and travel expenses. Sure this was all very expensive but how often does one see the next Republican hopeful get nominated?
The convention was slated to start on Aug 26, 2012 but we sat that day out because of Hurricane Isaac. There was some reports that it would hit Tampa hard but I saw only a few showers that day. The optics would have been bad to see Republican partying during a hurricane so they cancelled nearly all events the first day. Most of the state delegations stayed in Tampa hotels but the entire California delegation stayed at a resort hotel, the Tradewinds Island Grand, which was on the St Petersburg beach. It was a really great hotel but it meant a 30 minute bus ride each way to Tampa every day. Tampa was only about 10 miles away but the massive security apparatus made the trip much longer.
Chris Christie and Meg Whitman gave speeches just to our California delegation at our hotel, which was a special treat. Meg told a story about her and Chris that occurred during Meg's campaign for governor of California in 2010. Meg was being harassed by an onlooker while Chris was waiting to speak next. So Chris being Chris he skipped the podium and got right in the face of the guy who was harassing Meg. Later in the hotel, I just happened to catch that 2010 video on a monitor. Cool!
They played Dinesh D'Souza's film America at the hotel. Got to meet John Sullivan there, he co-directed the film. Dinesh himself did not show for the film.
Seats were assigned at the convention hall in Tampa, which was the Tampa Bay Times Forum. My seat was on the 3rd level where I never got close or saw any of the big name politicians. I did hang out several days with Greg McMullen who was a delegate and he got much better seating. He snuck me into a seat one day near his but the security people eventually kept me out when I exited awhile and tried to get back in. I have talked to Romney several times at previous events but at this one I could only take far away videos.
While all this was fairly costly, the food and drinks were free and plentiful at the hotel and I went to a Journey concert which was also free right after the nomination.