How many times have the Democrats and Republicans held their conventions in the same city?

a) 2

b) 4

c) 6

d) 8

Answer: c) The Democrats and Republicans chose the same city as their convention site six times. Four of those coincidences occurred in Chicago, which has waned in recent years as a political convention site but which still is by far the record holder with 25 total national major-party gatherings.

Chicago was the site of both parties’ conventions in 1884. There then was a long gap until 1932 and 1944, when the parties — pressed in part by the economic and logistical necessities caused first by the Great Depression and later by World War II — again chose Chicago as their common site.

The trend continued in 1948 in Philadelphia and 1952 in Chicago, the year which also marked the first nationally televised conventions, as the parties sought to accommodate the cumbersome equipment setups used by the early TV broadcasters. But as television gave, it also took away: Each party raised its specifications for turning arenas into settings for television spectacles, making it increasingly difficult for one city to host both parties.

The last time it happened, in Miami Beach in 1972, was in fact unintentional. The GOP initially named San Diego as its convention site, but budget problems and a scandal over convention financing prompted the Republicans to move their convention to Miami, where the Democrats already planned to meet.

The parties’ convention cities in years since were:

1976 - New York (Democrats), Kansas City (Republicans)

1980 - New York (Democrats), Detroit (Republicans)

1984 - San Francisco (Democrats), Dallas (Republicans)

1988 - Atlanta (Democrats), New Orleans (Republicans)

1992 - New York (Democrats), Houston (Republicans)

1996 - Chicago (Democrats), San Diego (Republicans)

2000 - Los Angeles (Democrats), Philadelphia (Republicans)

2004 - Boston (Democrats), New York (Republicans)

This year’s Democratic convention is scheduled to be held Aug. 25-28 in Denver, with the Republican convention following Sept. 1-4 in St. Paul, Minn.