By DAVID BROCK, Danville Advocate-Messenger
2:34 p.m. CST, January 18, 2012
Eleven years after the nation’s collective attention was drawn to Danville, KY’s Centre College for a vice-presidential debate, the school has snagged the coveted hosting gig a second time.
Centre, where Joe Lieberman and Dick Cheney debated in 2000 and was a backup location during the 2008 election, will be the setting for the only scheduled vice-presidential debate on Oct. 11, 2012.
The three presidential debates will take place at the University of Denver in Colorado, Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. and Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., with Washington University in St. Louis acting as a backup.
With throngs of political staff and media set to descend on Danville, work must get under way soon on planning for the influx of thousands of people who will be on and around the campus.
Although the commission limits the number of people allowed inside the Norton Center to 700, it also requires space for 3,000 media members, a group likely to look vastly different than in 2000, when many of the current electronic media sources either didn’t exist or were in their beginning stages.
Clarence Wyatt, a Centre history professor and special assistant to the president, said having an incumbent in the race in 2012, unlike 2000, means the White House press corps also will come to town.
“This can be a springboard for a lot of big things for us,” said Boyle Judge-Executive Harold McKinney. “You have a lot of people watching you. People also see you can bring in not one, but two vice-presidential debates and successfully carry that off. We think we can use that energy to bring in jobs and investment in our county.”
The timing of the event will create a busy schedule for Danville civic leaders and for the Advocate-Messenger staff.
The Oct. 11 debate will occur only days after the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Perryville, the most famous and bloodies of Civil War battles. Thousands of re-enactors will be pouring into the Danville area to take part in this event.