This weekend’s California Republican Assembly convention in Sacramento I found to be quite interesting as well as a bit of fun [especially when your guy wins, as I disclose I am an endorser of Governor Romney’s bid for President]
The other convention stories of the action around the 4th Congressional race/non-race, the push for the SB 777 referendum, [armloads of new petitions fanning out from Sacramento and hitting the streets] the tribal compacts referendum question and other issues kept it lively as if this being a presidential endorsing convention wasn’t enough.
It appeared to be a spirited battle was under way from just walking around the convention, with a strong Romney presence, active Thompson supporters, the Ron Paul army, and a decent turnout for the well-respected Congressman Duncan Hunter. No visibility for Rudy or Sen. McCain.
The Saturday night dinner featured the keynote speech by former US Senator Jim Talent of Missouri [that’s "Muhzurra"] a conservatives conservative, who just lost the Senate seat by 3% in the Nov. ’06 debacle for Republicans nationwide. He is a man of faith, very strongly pro-life, outspoken against the stem cell fad and an all around a good fit for CRA members. A few of us had a chance to visit with Jim before the dinner and heard of his experiences in his state legislature, [he gave a plug for how important state legislators are for party building] the US House, US Senate and now as a fellow with the Heritage Foundation.
He related in his decision about endorsing for the presidency, that having served in the US House and US Senate, he knew these candidates pretty well, as most of the Republican field is or had been in DC. He didn’t disparage any of them, as they are all fine gentlemen with their own views of how to govern and different levels of ability to reach the public with their message. One comment that did cause a chuckle at the dinner was the desire at the time by Senator Thompson that the now hated McCain-Feingold "Political Reform Act" be known as McCain-Feingold-Thompson. Senator Talent was very well received at the dinner and very effective with his conservative message about what is right for and about America. Later, several attendees related that his comments helped make up their mind for Romney.
Senator Talent’s conclusion was, that of the whole field, having served beside many of them, Governor Romney would best carry the conservative banner, to keep the Republican base motivated, to have CRA type values in the White House, that with the organization he has, it will achieve the win in Nov ’08 and send Mrs. Clinton packing.
Sunday’s endorsement vote, after the rules were clarified for the voting body, came down to how many ballots would it take to have a conclusion. The ground rules being that all candidates known would be listed and few minutes allowed for the nominations [speeches] of each.
No speech was offered by anyone in the room for Sen McCain, nor Tancredo or Huckabee.
To make it past the first ballot a candidate would need to carry 10% of the total number of delegates voting, which was about 24 of the 240 or so expected to vote. Delegates were seated in the room, and asked to stand and be counted as each candidate was called out. I was somewhat surprised that after that first ballot only 2 candidates could muster over 10% and the silence for some of them was deafening…I didn’t see a single delegate rise for Sen McCain. At a glance it appeared Romney had a tick over half of the votes with the full field of candidates, which was indeed the case, 56% or so.
The 2nd ballot was then taken with Romney able to pull enough of the pool of freed-up delegates to punch through the 2/3’s level. Again, to me, very impressive as the level of lobbying for other candidates had been very spirited. Getting it done in only 2 ballots is a very good sign for Romney.
There will be those that are disappointed, others that will criticize the outcome and that’s OK. It’s a process that stirs passion and it should…if it didn’t, I would be afraid for our party and our goals for America. What this endorsing convention showed in my view, was that conservatives do want a conservative choice for president and that they will coalesce and rally behind one that will get it done. Governor Romney’s supporters were most motivated to take the time to attend, do the work, and show their support, [while other candidates do not inspire enough of that] and that the other delegates saw the strength of values important to CRA, the strength of organization, the ability to win the White House in the most important presidential election perhaps ever, and end the threat of another dangerous and embarrassing Clinton era.