Va. GOP delegates getting ready for convention in St. Paul

By Greg Gaudio

Four years ago, Pam Brown stepped onto the floor of the Republican National Convention in New York . Now the Norfolk GOP chairwoman can’t wait to do it again.

“I can tell you, there’s nothing like it,” she said. “The first time you set foot on the convention floor, it’s like it’s electric or something.”

Brown will join an anticipated 45,000 delegates, family members, journalists, party workers and others in Minneapolis-St. Paul for the 2008 convention, which begins Monday .

She is one of 2,380 delegates charged with voting to nominate the Republican candidate for president – and one of six from South Hampton Roads.

Most Hampton Roads delegates are local GOP leaders. One is a state legislator. Another is the husband of U.S. Rep. Thelma Drake.

Before departing for the Twin Cities, they shared their expectations for the convention and weighed in on presumptive nominee John McCain, who will address the convention Thursday night. Though McCain is assured of getting the nod and running in the Nov. 4 general election, earning a delegate seat and casting a vote for him means a lot on a personal level, they said.

“It’s a mark of achievement and recognition from your peers,” said Brown, 45, who’s volunteered for party causes since 2001, sometimes spinning records as “DJ Pam.”

Said Portsmouth GOP chairman and attorney Bryan Meals, 41: “(McCain) certainly does have it shored up, but I’m mindful of how weighty the decision is.”

Important as the vote may be, the convention isn’t all about business.

“You’re going to jump up and down, yell and scream, wave signs,” Brown said. “It’s like the hugest frat party for die-hard Republicans that you could possibly imagine.”

When they’re not on the floor of the Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul, the delegates will attend receptions and dinners and check out the tourist spots.

“It was kind of like a smorgasbord,” Brown said, recalling her trip to New York four years ago. “Months before the convention, I started getting all these beautiful invitations in the mail. And, for the most part, it’s not stuff you’ve got to pay for.”

There’s also the lure of chance meetings with top brass.

State Del. John Cosgrove remembered George W. and Laura Bush stepping out of the elevator he was waiting for in a Philadelphia hotel during the 2000 convention.

“When the doors open and there’s the next president, that’s pretty cool,” he said. “We didn’t talk much at all, just: 'Hey, how are you doing?’ The Secret Service was all around.”

Meals, who is attending for the first time , said he’s hoping for a similar encounter.

“As a political junkie, this is sort of the Super Bowl of politics,” he said. “The people you read about and see on TV are going to be there live.”

Another first-time delegate, Thomas E. “Ted” Drake, said he’s looking forward to the convention because it’ll give him a chance to spend time with wife Thelma and take a break from her re-election campaign to the U.S. House.

Drake, 53, said he filed to be a delegate so they’d have the same access privileges at the convention.

“Other people were dying to get it, and I didn’t even understand what it was,” he said. “But I’m starting to get the picture now.”

Above all, the convention is about rallying around John McCain and preparing to campaign , several delegates said.

Though they may disagree with McCain on some issues – campaign finance reform, immigration, tax policy – they regard him as the strongest candidate on national security, which they say takes precedence over others.

“All those are secondary,” Meals said. “They don’t matter if the president doesn’t keep us safe from all the dangers in the world, whether it’s Islamic terrorists or a renewed Russia asserting itself.”

They’re behind McCain, they said, even if he wasn’t their first choice during primary season.

“He’s not as conservative as many Republicans would like, but he’s acceptable,” Brown said. “As I’ve learned a little bit more about him and Cindy, I’ve gotten to be much more enthusiastic.”

And they remain confident he’ll take the November election .

“Barack Obama just won’t be able to keep up in terms of debates and policy arguments,” Cosgrove, 54, said. “When he loses his teleprompter, he’s toast.”

“I think that you’ve seen the conservative base rally around Senator McCain,” Meals said. “To the extent that there has been a measurable lack of enthusiasm, I think that we’ll fall in line after the convention.”

Greg Gaudio recently completed an internship at The Virginian-Pilot.