“Hotels busy with Brady election visitors”

Hotels busy with Brady election visitors

Posted: 01 Nov 2010 01:20 PM PDT

BLOOMINGTON -- Sen. Bill Brady has pledged to help businesses if elected. Apparently, he's starting with hotels.

Twin City hotels, already busy with usual weekday corporate travelers, are facing higher demand for rooms Tuesday night because the Republican candidate for governor's election night headquarters is in his hometown, at the DoubleTree Hotel and Conference Center, 10 Brickyard Drive.

The hotel's 190-plus rooms are completely booked Tuesday, said General Manager Rodney Brittain. It's the same at the 128-room Hampton Inn and Suites, 320 S. Towanda Ave., Normal, said General Manager Richard Raube, who is also chairman of the Bloomington-Normal Hotel and Lodging Association.

"Brady has created a lot of pressure in town for many, many hotels," Raube said. "There exists a pretty high demand in rooms anyway (on Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday nights), so these folks coming in for Brady's event are kind of grabbing at whatever they can."

The DoubleTree expects 3,000 to 4,000 Brady supporters to flow in and out after doors to the watch party open at 7:30 p.m., said Brittain. The conference, dining and courtyard areas will be involved, and the state senator will take the stage in the main Brickyard Ballroom after monitoring election returns in the campaign's "war room."

The hotel also hosted Brady's primary watch party in February, when Brady was considered by some a longshot for the GOP nomination. But as the results started to come in, Chicago-based media were left unprepared and began calling the hotel, asking about the nearest airport and where they could park their trucks, Brittain said.

This time, "we've been in constant contact with the media" from all over the state, he said.

After months of planning, the hotel added dozens of phone lines for campaign staff, plus an array of audio-visual equipment so county-by-county results can be fed live into the building, Brittain said. There will be some extra desk staff to answer questions and to serve food and beverage, but it's not "all hands on deck," he said.

"Really, to us, this is business as usual," he said.

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