A disciplined convention

MESA - The Arizona Republican Party didn't want a suspenseful convention, and they got their wish.

The Mesa Convention Center today filled with Republican Party officers from across the state, with the purpose of electing the 103 delegates and alternates who will converge in Minneapolis/St. Paul in September to, in all likelihood, officially bestow the Party's presidential nomination upon Sen. John McCain.

Tony Reinhard, spokesman for the Arizona Republican Party, said his organization was very pleased with event, which made up in exactitude what it lacked in excitement.

"This is a good jumping-off point for the presidential race," said Reinhard. 

In light of the havoc caused by supporters of Texas congressman Ron Paul during the Nevada Republican Convention, the AZ GOP sought to guarantee that the same wouldn't happen in Sen. McCain's home state.

The result, the "McCain '08 Unity Slate," consisted of reliably in-line Republicans who wouldn't stray from backing the party's presumptive presidential nominee, who also happens to be the highest-ranking Republican officeholder in Arizona.

The slate prevailed almost totally, and only one Paul backer, Roy Miller in CD4, will join the Arizona delegation to the RNC.

Even Miller, though, is not expected to cause a problem.

"He told me he's going to sign the pledge" to support McCain, said Randy Pullen, Chairman of the Arizona Republican Party who held the gavel during the proceedings.

Pullen said that Miller, like the others who might have had reservations about McCain as the GOP nominee, "gets it."

"The primaries are over," said Pullen. "It's time to move on."

Ron Paul's supporters at the convention acknowledged theirs was a tough row to hoe.

"We just don't have numbers in Arizona like we had in Nevada. I mean, this is obviously John McCain's home state, so what do you expect?" said Jeff Greenspan, Southwest Regional Coordinator for the Ron Paul campaign. He said his effort to secure Paul delegates had come "remarkably close" in some of the congressional district caucuses.

"Had we come in here with 20 more delegates, it would have been a different story," said Greenspan. He also indicated that part of the problem with the effort is that those who don't support McCain in Arizona tend not to be Ron Paul supporters either.

"Frankly, of the people who do not support McCain in this state, the Ron Paul people are in the minority - like maybe 20 percent at most of the non-McCain supporters."

The failed insurgency by Paul's candidates proved the only part of the convention that introduced any uncertainty. Only in CD4 was there any deviation between those put up via the Unity Slate and those who were elected as RNC delegates. Galen Kimmick, Constantine Querard and Daniel Veres were originally slated to become alternates, with Joe Abate, Rob Dalager and Burt Kruglick put forward as the delegates.

However, Abate and Kruglick were elected as At-Large delegates, while Kimmick and Veres were elected as the CD4 delegates along with Milton Wheat. The alternates from CD4 are Peggy Wheat, Constantine Querard and Roy Miller.

Other than that, only Sheriff Joe Arpaio's replacement of Ed Sanchez as an At-Large Alternate delegate provided a divergence from the established slate.