The site for the 2012 Democratic National Convention is likely to be announced early in the new year, not by the end of the month as once believed.
Sources say a combination of an unexpectedly busy lame-duck congressional session and the holidays appear to have helped push back an announcement.
"We've not been told when a decision will be reached or announced," Will Miller, acting executive director of "Charlotte in 2012," said Wednesday.
Charlotte is competing for the convention with Cleveland, Minneapolis and St. Louis.
It wasn't until Jan. 11, 2007, that Democrats announced Denver as the site of their 2008 convention.
At stake for each of the cities is more than $150 million in expected economic benefits and millions more in worldwide attention.
Last week, an unnamed party official sought to debunk suggestions that Charlotte and St. Louis were the leading contenders. But in a story published Wednesday, Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri echoed the notion that it's between her state and North Carolina.
"I can't speak with confidence we're gonna get it, but I think we're definitely in it - it's down to the final two," she told the National Journal.
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