McCain supporters dominate WA state GOP convention

Information from: The Spokesman-Review, www.spokesmanreview.com

SPOKANE, Wash. -- Supporters of Sen. John McCain's presidential bid got what they wanted at the Washington State Republican Convention on Saturday, with a "unity" slate of delegates to the national convention supporting the Arizona senator.

Supporters of Texas congressman Ron Paul mounted a sizeable presence at the convention, but in the end an agreement was reached with supporters of Paul and other GOP presidential hopefuls, leading to a slate of 33 delegates for McCain, four for Paul and three for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. The national convention this summer will be in St. Paul, Minn.

McCain supporters among more than 1,500 delegates at the state convention used their majority to quash debate on most controversial platform issues.

Jon Wyss, Eastern Washington coordinator for the McCain campaign, told The Spokesman-Review newspaper of Spokane that he was "extremely happy with how things went."

Their main goal was to elect their chosen slate of delegates to the national convention, where McCain will be nominated, he said. Debate over stacks of resolutions were only a sidelight to the McCain campaign's real concern, which was the national platform, he said.

McCain supporters, armed with red "NO" cards and green "YES" cards for voting, generally had a numbers advantage over Paul supporters, who had their own color-coded flags.

Some delegates asked that signaling be banned, which prompted the "NO" cards to come out.

Delegates never got to debate their support or opposition for the war in Iraq in the platform. McCain voted to give President Bush authority to send troops into Iraq; Paul voted against it.

After a significant number of McCain delegates left the hall, the convention adopted a resolution that calls for the House of Representatives to vote on a declaration of war for any military operation. That's something that didn't happen for Korea, Vietnam or current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is a major bone of contention between McCain, who supports continued U.S. presence in those countries, and Paul, who opposes them.