Republicans convene in Spokane

Washington Republicans may be split between John McCain and Ron Paul for president, but they appear to be united on Dino Rossi.

They want to re-elect him governor.

The fact that he is not now governor does not matter to the vast majority of the 1,300-plus GOP activists gathering at the Spokane Convention Center for their state convention.

The former state senator received ovations Friday morning when he delivered his stump speech calling for a smaller state bureaucracy, more money for road projects and an end to the state inheritance tax, which Republican activists call “the death tax.”

He got a second shot at the delegates Friday evening when their scheduled banquet speaker, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, canceled. Rossi and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers were called to pinch-hit.

Other politicians exhorted delegates to unite behind Rossi, despite any differences on national issues or candidates. Some fed the Republicans’ long-standing grudge – that the 2004 election was stolen from him when Democrat Chris Gregoire won on the second recount – to get big applause lines of their own.

Marcia McCraw, who is seeking to oust long-term incumbent Democratic Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, got a strong response with this line: “What a difference it will make, when we re-elect Dino Rossi as our governor, to have a Republican as lieutenant governor.”

U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, of Bellevue, talked about “redefeating” Gregoire. U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, of Central Washington’s 4th District, told the group the election was about choices and a chance to turn the state around when they “elect Dino – RE-ELECT Dino Rossi – governor.”

And pre-luncheon speakers urged Republicans in the McCain and Paul camps not to let their fights over the presidential campaign carry over into state races.

Although McCain is the party’s apparent nominee, with more than enough delegates to receive the nomination at the GOP’s national convention in Minneapolis in September, Paul has said he remains in the race. His supporters did well in the state’s Feb. 9 caucuses, capturing the biggest plurality in Spokane and several other counties.

Paul supporters stuck with the process through the succeeding rounds of county conventions, and now appear to be a significant bloc at the state convention. How significant isn’t yet clear, because about a tenth of the 1,323 delegates elected to the state convention didn’t show up and were replaced by alternates. Under state GOP rules, alternates don’t have to support the same candidates as the delegates they replace.

Votes that are usually considered routine, such as the adoption of convention rules, became tests of the strength of McCain and Paul blocs Friday morning. Both sides have leaders who signaled their sign-waving troops which way to vote on such matters as demanding a roll call vote or challenging a county delegation that Paul forces contended was improperly stacked with McCain delegates.

McCain supporters had an edge over Paul supporters and won every contested point. But most votes came before alternates filled empty delegate slots.

The convention gets down to more serious business today when it must vote on a platform, or statement of principles, and elects delegates awarded from the Feb. 19 presidential primary.

Seattle radio talk show host and former gubernatorial candidate John Carlson was among speakers reminding delegates where Paul and McCain agree – both want lower taxes and a smaller federal government, both oppose “earmarks” to increase federal spending and support tax cuts, both voted against the recent farm bill. But it was the differences that caused sparks at some county conventions.

Paul’s biggest difference with McCain is over the Iraq war. The Arizona senator supported the invasion of Iraq from the outset and has vowed to stay in the country until victory.

Paul, a Texas congressman, voted against the war and his supporters have pushed for platform planks that would call for the withdrawal of troops from any country within six months without a constitutional declaration of war – something that the Iraq military operations do not have.