Blue city. Blue state. Blue convention?

Three years before the next presidential election, some Charlotte leaders are trying to bring the Democratic Party's 2012 convention to town.

Mayor Pro Tem Susan Burgess invited former national Democratic chairman Don Fowler of Columbia (left) to meet today with her, Mayor-elect Anthony Foxx and Tim Newman of the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority.

Charlotte was one of more than three dozen cities the Democratic National Committee invited to consider applying to host the convention. Cities have until Jan. 11 to express interest. A host city is expected to be chosen at the end of 2010.

Fowler, who has been to every convention since 1968 and ran the party's 1988 gathering in Atlanta, declined to speculate on Charlotte's chances. But he said the election of Foxx as the first Democratic mayor in 22 years and the fact that North Carolina went for Barack Obama in 2008 wouldn't hurt.

“That’s just a given," he said.