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Republicans get on board for McCain

Romney, other supporters ready to turn it around

By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 29, 2008 at 11:45 p.m.

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Myron Spanier, a retired small-business owner, figured 30 people, 40 tops, would come out for the two-precinct caucus at the clubhouse of his gated golf course community.

Instead, about 200 people showed up on Super Tuesday, so the meeting moved to the ballroom. The Democrats, too, saw unprecedented interest in their caucuses.

But the GOP meeting at the Heritage Eagle Bend in Aurora was anything but a love fest for John McCain.

Spanier and three out of four attendees backed Mitt Romney that night. It took awhile for him and other Romney supporters to get on board with McCain.

"The healing process probably took up to six weeks," Spanier said. "I'm a big boy. You say, OK, what's it going to take to win this thing? How do we get behind him?' "

That kind of turnaround is good news for McCain, who will need the support of activist Republicans this fall.

Push to get out the vote

In Colorado and across the country, volunteers will oil a key piece of the GOP machinery, a get-out-the vote effort dubbed "Victory."

Over the past month or so, GOP leaders have opened nine Victory offices across Colorado. These are the hubs for phone banks, precinct work and fundraising - everything that makes up "the ground operation," said Dick Wadhams, chairman of the state GOP Party. Each state has some version of this effort.

The paid staff statewide numbers less than 100, but Wadhams would not be more specific. He said the campaign plan depends on thousands of volunteers, who will work on the entire Republican ticket.

The Victory operation gets explicit direction from top national strategists, who outline campaign messages. Volunteer callers contact the party faithful as well as key voting groups, such as Hispanics and independents.

Once a month, they launch super Saturday campaign operations, which will be ramped up to every weekend closer to the election.

GOP campaigns have been structured like this in previous elections. But this year, the effort is better coordinated and focused, Wadhams said.

Wadhams said his party has benefited from knowing its presidential nominee much earlier than Democrats did. He said Republicans also have a stronger history than Democrats of uniting around a candidate, even if that person wasn't their first choice.

Republicans upbeat

Democrats have made significant gains in Colorado in recent years. This year, they dominate top state offices - from the governor to the legislature. Colorado is one of about 18 battleground states for the presidential race, and the Obama campaign is pushing hard here.

Yet, Republicans like their chances this election season - especially considering recent polls in Colorado and nationwide, which show Obama and McCain neck and neck.

Gary Tobey, 66, a longtime Republican campaign operative in Centennial, said he was ridiculed for supporting McCain at his caucus.

But the bitterness is largely gone now, he said.

"I know people who are supporting him fairly strongly now who were not at all supportive back then," said Tobey, who was a Navy pilot and knew McCain.

In the McCain camp

Bob Beauprez, who ran for governor in 2006, said he supported Romney in February. But he's now volunteering for McCain. At the DNC this week, Beauprez did numerous radio interviews on behalf of the RNC and McCain.

He said Colorado Republicans will have no trouble supporting McCain, partly because of the abortion rights stance of Obama and running mate Joe Biden.

Beauprez said the decision among GOP voters will come down to the question of "who's going to keep me safe?"

"I think that's just a slam dunk for John McCain," Beauprez said.

Rita Hyland, another grassroots GOP activist and precinct leader in Centennial, is optimistic that Republicans will overwhelmingly back McCain.

"We're getting more and more confident as time goes on," she said. "There was a little bit of disappointment in the beginning. This state overwhelmingly supported Mitt Romney.

"But they are coming around."

kimm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2361

Comments

  • August 30, 2008

    10:10 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    joelbyr writes:

    When I think of the choosing of Sarah Palin for the Vice Presidency of the United States of America, I still seem to have two notions in mind. One is that this is a joke from John McCain. He is soon going to appear on the Jay Leno Show and announce that is is just a gag. It is just Jokin' John being humorous. The other is that, this is just a bad dream. I will wake up and realize that, an amorous old man did not just turn the Republican Party into the party of Pepe' Le Pew.

    It is not a dream. This not just a joke.

    John McCain has put the security of a nation and the well being of the world at risk in order to try to win an election.
    It is dishearting to abandon a political party because of one self-centered irresponsible decision. But no American that loves this country will vote to make Sarah Palin the Vice President of the United States.
    Never in my life have I felt so disgusted by a political choice.

  • August 30, 2008

    10:24 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    jacka writes:

    Governor Palin looks like she and her family live down the street. She is one of fifty Governors.

    Same as Governor Ritter, 2 years on the job, taxing up oil.

  • August 30, 2008

    11:26 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    SL10 writes:

    McCain choses a female version of D¡ck Cheney. lol.

  • August 30, 2008

    1:03 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    daRock writes:

    I feel a LOT safer under McCain/Palin than I do under Obama/Biden.

  • August 30, 2008

    5:41 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    HopiMedicineMan writes:

    Prejudice exists. Republican women and minorities are less than human, to Democrats, just like the pre-born and Democrat targets of euthanasia in California.

    The Rocky refuses to cover black Republicans.

  • August 30, 2008

    5:47 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    HopiMedicineMan writes:

    The Republican State Assembly had over 50 really enthusiastic black delegates, more than the Democrat Assembly, no mention in the RMN.

  • August 31, 2008

    8:32 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    ArvadaMiner writes:

    In response to joelbyr, I am an American that loves this country, and I will have no problem voting for Sarah Palin for Vice-President. I hear much about a lack of experience, but no one is saying she lacks the necessary skills.