Wisconsin's RNC delegation lands downtown hotel after first being steered to Racine

WASHINGTON – Downtown hotels will be hard to come by when the Republican National Convention kicks off in Milwaukee in just over two months.

But members of Wisconsin's convention delegation have secured their rooms.

The state's delegation will stay at the Hampton Inn & Suites just half a mile from Fiserv Forum, the epicenter of the July 15-18 convention , after many other members were originally slated to stay at a hotel in Racine, a Republican Party of Wisconsin spokesman told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week.

Exactly why the delegation was moved from Racine to the downtown Milwaukee hotel was not entirely clear. But a spokeswoman for the convention on Tuesday night said the state's delegation had initially booked space in both hotels.

A March 27 email from convention officials to top Wisconsin Republicans obtained by the Journal Sentinel showed the state's delegation had 63 rooms booked at the Delta Hotel by Marriott in Racine and dozens more rooms in the Hampton Inn & Suites in downtown Milwaukee.

After the delegation "significantly reduced their hotel room needs" and dropped additional event space requests, the convention spokeswoman said, the delegation scrapped plans for Racine and shifted everyone to Milwaukee.

The delegation includes both convention delegates and Wisconsin's Republican members of Congress.

The downtown Milwaukee hotel has faced financial trouble in recent years. The Hampton Inn & Suites closed temporarily last May but reopened under new owners — the fourth operators in just over four years .

The Hampton Inn & Suites is just one of many around Milwaukee and southeastern Wisconsin the convention will put to use. Organizers have contracted with 111 hotels in Wisconsin for the RNC, officials told the Journal Sentinel .

Organizers try to keep the members of each state delegation together in a hotel or in neighboring hotels for reasons including the ease of transportation and camaraderie, but figuring out who goes where can be complicated. One factor: collaboration between the RNC and state GOP parties to boost grassroots outreach efforts.

"Who are good supporters? Who is doing good work in their states? Who are the good actors? Who is working hard? Who is meeting certain deliverables and benchmarks in their states?" Elise Dickens, the chief executive officer for the Republican National Committee , said in March, referring to the collaborative program.

Other hotel assignments have not been publicly released.

Alison Dirr of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin's RNC delegation lands downtown hotel after first being steered to Racine