GOP Deep-Sixes Its Plan for Convention Cruise Ship Stay

NEW YORK — The Republican Party on Tuesday dropped its plan to host a gala boat party during the 2004 GOP National Convention.

Bowing to public pressure from critics who said the plan would cost city businesses more than $3 million in lost revenue, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) said he had canceled plans to house guests for the convention on a lavish cruise ship off Manhattan.

An aide to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said the mayor had spoken to DeLay about dropping the ship proposal and assured him that Republicans would be comfortable with the level of security at city hotels.

DeLay purportedly “agreed to let it go,” said the aide, who asked not to be quoted by name.

At the same time, the Norwegian Cruise Line, which had agreed to lease the Norwegian Dawn to the Republicans, told Bloomberg it had decided the deal “would not be commercially viable.”

The scuttling of the ship proposal came after labor leaders, the city’s hotel association and Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) had urged Bloomberg and New York Gov. George E. Pataki to stop the river retreat.

DeLay had maintained that a ship docked on the Hudson River, a few blocks from convention headquarters at Madison Square Garden, would allow increased privacy and security for convention-goers.