It's a pep rally. It's scripted.
"OK, I won't argue that," said Don Murphy, chairman of the Maryland delegation to the Republican National Convention, which runs Sept. 1-4 in St. Paul, Minn. "But they used to be the smoke-filled backroom where delegates go and decide who the nominee is going to be."
That doesn't happen anymore. Sure, having the primaries decide how convention delegates cast their votes means the nominating part of the conventions has lost much of its mystery. But that's not all bad.
"For the voter, that's a good thing," Murphy said.
Maryland's delegation plans to use the convention to rally Arizona Sen. John McCain's supporters for the stretch run to the Nov. 4 election.
Thirty-seven delegates will spend four days of delegation breakfasts, luncheon outings and long hours on a convention floor buzzing with excitement and activity around a theme of "Country First" that was announced Wednesday.
"This marks the start of the fall campaign," said Murphy, a former delegate. "… We really want to excite the grass roots."
This is the latest the Republican Party has ever held its convention, leaving just two months between the convention's close and Election Day.
"A convention really serves as a booster shot for the campaign to follow," said Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold, who will attend his eighth convention as a delegate.
Each candidate hopes to get a boost in the polls from his party's convention. McCain could try to quickly steal the spotlight from Sen. Barack Obama by announcing his running mate Aug. 29, the day after the Democratic National Convention concludes in Denver.
Chris Cavey, chairman of McCain's campaign in Maryland, offered two reasons why the convention is important: "Number 1, it is an advertisement for John McCain and the Republican Party. It is PR. It shows the public what the Republican Party is doing, what our candidate is doing and why. And that's good. It's earned media."
The other, though less important, reason is to allow the party to "reboot," Cavey said.
"It's time to get together, it's time to recharge everybody's batteries, and it's important to put everybody on the same path in order to go into these final days before the election," he said.
It is an opportunity to "bring everyone from the field into the home office" in an age where "a lot of your convention work happens electronically," Cavey said.
"The whole idea of ‘Does a convention mean anything or not?' is archaic in this world of communications," he said. "In 1920, everybody had to go to the same spot. Today, if I want to debate somebody from California, New Mexico, Guam, or wherever, I can jump on a blog and we can debate until our fingers bleed."
Carmen M. Amedori, who represented Carroll County in the House of Delegates from 1999 to 2004 and will represent the 6th Congressional District as a convention delegate, dismissed the criticism of convention scripting.
"The General Assembly is just as scripted," she said. "When you debate on the House floor about guns, abortions, certain tax issues, certain delegates are designated [to speak]," she said.
Amedori attended the 2000 convention in Philadelphia as an alternate delegate for McCain.
"I think this time it's going to be a lot more interesting for me because I'm going to be involved in more than just the pep rally."
Walking the planks
Amedori is one of two Maryland members on the Platform Committee, also known as the Resolutions Committee. House Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell (R-Dist. 29C) of Lusby is the other. Every state, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. territories get two members on the committee, which sets the direction for the party.
The Platform Committee "will be there to make sure the party remains the center-right party," Murphy said. "It outlines parameters for what it means to be a Republican."
Past conventions have seen national parties sharply divided over platform planks such as war (the Democrats, most notably in 1968) and abortion (the Republicans, most notably in 1996).
Immigration policy could cause the most contention among Republicans this year, Amedori said.
"I think immigration is going to be something that's going to be debated until the sun goes down," she said.
Amedori has already received e-mails from people who would like her to support a fence along the United States' border with Mexico and no amnesty for illegal immigrants.
"Other people are more realistic and realize there has to be some amnesty," she said.
Committee members are arriving in St. Paul on Monday, giving them a week to work before the convention opens.
Visitors to the Republican National Convention Web site at www.gopplatform2008.com are able to submit suggestions for the party's platform.
Energy issues promise to play a part in the party platform, as they have in McCain's campaign, Murphy said.
"The whole issue of renewable energy and not being so tied to foreign oil is John McCain's issue and will be inked in the Republican Party platform by the Republican establishment," he said.
The platform is the party's message, though it is not always the same as the campaign's message.
"Platforms generally gather dust on shelves, are not well-read and are not an essential document of a campaign," Leopold said.
Still, Leopold has kept every platform since 1976. He will read it every once in a while to remind himself of the party's direction on important areas such as health care, national defense, Social Security and government spending, he said.
O'Donnell said he hopes government spending is one platform plank that receives attention.
"I think it will be very, very important, among many other things, to establish our commitment and Sen. McCain's commitment to reining in wasteful spending and reclaim the Republican mantle of fiscal conservatism," he said. "We've seen in Maryland how destructive it has been to spend beyond our means and we cannot let that happen at the national level. I'm hopeful we'll make a strong statement about that on our party platform."
Maryland's place in the GOP world
There is a pecking order to conventions. A McCain victory in Maryland, where Democrats outnumber Republicans two-to-one, would be considered an upset. With that in mind, battleground states like Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia are likely to get more attention and better seating on the convention floor.
When people think GOP strongholds they don't think Maryland.
"I know how I feel about Massachusetts and I'm sure 48 other states feel the same way about Maryland and Massachusetts," Murphy said.
Still, Maryland's delegation is one of six staying in St. Paul, while Michigan's is booked 45 minutes from convention headquarters at the Xcel Energy Center, he said.
"Maryland has always been respected in the ranks of the Republican National Committee; we're just demographically inhibited," Cavey said. "We're like the rest of America. Unfortunately, we have greater urban areas than the rest of the states."
The GOP's election record "isn't as horrible as you think," Cavey said, citing the narrow margin that cast former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. from office in 2006.
Republicans won a majority of jurisdictions in the 2006 statewide elections.
"It's just the heavily urban districts going the wrong direction—wrong as far as I'm concerned," Cavey said. "… And when we talk Maryland Republican Party in a national context, our RNC members have always been very highly regarded."
Follow Maryland's delegation to
the Republican National Convention on its Web site at www.mdgop
convention2008.com. The site
will be live during the convention.
