"CHARLIE FOXTROT" DESCRIBES THE AZ GOP STATE CONVENTION...

May 12, 2012

The bright spots of this "Charlie Foxtrot" convention were:

The facility was great it was held at Grand Canyon College in a fabulous auditorium. The other bright spot were the speakers:

Governor Brewer gave a speech that Arizona would deliver a victory for the Republican nominee and remain a red state on her watch.

Josh Romney the third son of nominee Mitt Romney was there to speak on behalf of his father. He gave the normal political speech except for a story he told about his Mom and Dad. He said with five boys they sometimes broke the rules but their Dad had one rule they knew never to break and that was to never to be disrespectful to their Mom.

Gregory Mendoza, Governor of the Gila River Indian Community besides giving an inspiring speech in support of the Mitt Romney. I spent some time with him in the Romney Campaign Suite where they had refreshments for the volunteers. He told me about living in Chandler, going to public school until his father decided he needed to move back to the community. The culture adjustment he had to make. He is the youngest Governor the Gila River Indian Community has had.  

Charlie Foxtrot is the only way I know how to describe the rest of  2012 AZ GOP State Convention. The delegates were seated early the meeting was to start at 9 am according to the agenda but the meeting started at 10:15 am. Delegates were complaining from the get go. Some had received an agenda via e-mail and the ones that lived in rural Arizona who had so-so internet reception didn't receive the AZ GOP agenda before they arrived for the meeting.

This biggest snafu seemed to be there were no ballots for one district to vote and a staff member had to leave to print the ballots.

Another was the Ron Paul supporters booing Josh Romney who had to pause several times during his speech until they stopped. There was a lot of chin wagging about how rude they were.

Disorganization seemed to be the rule of the day from the conversations in every corner inside and outside the building. One delegate was so upset at 6:30 pm that meeting wasn't over she vowed to never participate again. I heard over and over four years ago everything ran smooth and we were on our way home by mid-afternoon.

I left at 6:40 pm and it was still going. One delegates came outside and asked a delegate who does catering was she taking orders for breakfast. be ###

The agenda timeline was:

6:30am Volunteers Arrive; Gates Open

7:00 - 7:30am Credentialing Begins

9:00am Call to Order; Credentialing Closes

Opening Ceremonies and Keynote Speaker

Morning Session: CD Delegate/Alternate Elections

Break for Lunch (untimed)

Afternoon Session: At-Large Delegate/Alternate and National Committeeman/woman Elections

Delegates Meeting (untimed/anticipated 5pm)