I’ve just returned from the first delegation meeting at the Bloomington Sheraton Hotel, the “home base” for the California Delegation to the Republican National Convention. Over breakfast, our delegation, many hundreds strong, was given an orientation of the week – which is to say that we all found out that everything is in flux. Right now, it is unclear how Hurricane Gustav is going to impact the rest of our week, but for today, we will be traveling by bus to the convention hall to take care of only the “must do” actions required under the RNC rules in order to nominate Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin as our official GOP ticket for the November election.
The Chairman of the delegation is former California Secretary of State Bill Jones (as is appropriate since he was a McCain guy back in 2000, and serves as his State Chairman for California this 
year). Jones welcomed the delegates, as did California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring. Guest speakers for the morning meeting included former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele, a much-rumored candidate for Chairman of the Republican National Committee come January, as well as retired Navy Captain Gerald Coffee. Former California Governor Pete Wilson also spoke to the delegation, lamenting with the rest of us the devastation of Gustav, but also hammering home the important job that we have in electing Senator McCain this November. More so than the other speakers, Wilson was mobbed by the press corps when he finished his remarks. We here at the FR were quite impressed with his kelly green blazer! (The photo above to the right doesn’t do the blazer justice.)
Sitting through the delegation meeting, as a Co-Chairman of the delegation, was Insurance Commissioner (and next California Governor?) Steve Poizner – front and center. Ironically, after the meeting, we also spied former eBay CEO (and next California Governor?) Meg Whitman out in the hallway, conducting and interview with the always-on-the-spot John Myers of KQED radio (pictured to the left).
Of course there were many GOP notables in attendance – too many to list out here. But I did want to take a second to recognize the trial lawyer Democrat in the room. The Orange County Register has flown Orange County Democrat leader Wylie Aitken to the convention to blog as the “Donkey in the room” as it were. We caught him (pictured right) being teased by Anaheim Mayor and former Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle.
From all accounts, the show-stealer for this first delegation meeting was Zachary, the new baby of Nathan and Mindy Fletcher. Nathan is the Republican nominee for an overwhelmingly Republican Assembly seat in San Diego County (yeah!) and, of course, Mindy (formerly Mindy Tucker) has impressive national credentials with her roles in the Bush campaigns as well as her high-profile positions in California. Clearly she is enjoying her current position – as a loving mom – most of all!
Check out the cool video set up, from this panoramic setup of Governor Wilson addressing the delegation…
P.S. I failed to mention on my list of FR bloggers in town in a post below that our own Meredith Turney is also here, and will be blogging away!
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