Rallying Inside & Outside GOP Convention

NEW YORK — Although Northern Virginia is not the strongest area in the state for the GOP, there is a solid representation from the region among Virginia's 125 delegates to the Republican National Convention here this week. The convention concludes with an acceptance speech by President Bush tonight.

The Virginia delegation was provided prime seats near the stage in Madison Square Garden, located just behind the more obvious "battleground" states like Missouri, Florida and Ohio. The location has been seen as a signal to the delegates that the GOP is taking nothing for granted in the state, even though it has gone Republican in every presidential election since 1964.

Rep. Tom Davis, former head of the party's Congressional Campaign Committee and eclipsed perhaps only by Senators John Warner and George Allen as a Virginia GOP political heavyweight, is not a delegate, but was on the floor as the convention opened Monday with his new spouse, State Senator Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, who is.

While the GOP speakers focus on Bush's strengths as a leader, outside the legendary arena, 10,000 police are patrolling, including restraining and sometimes clashing with anti-Bush demonstrators. They're railing against the Iraq invasion and the impact of Bush's economic policies on the nation's middle class and poor.

For GOP delegate Lisa Marie Cheney of Arlington, who is the GOP's nominee for the second time this fall against incumbent Rep. Jim Moran in the 8th District of Virginia, it is her third convention, but her first as a delegate.

"We're all here to support the man who has led our country during a very trying time and done it well," she beamed, saying she's looking forward to her own campaign that, she said, "will put the needs of our constituents in the 8th district foremost."

For Juanita Balenger, a party loyalist also active in the Rotary Club of Bailey's Crossroads, it was her first time to a convention. She grinned and conceded that she was caught up by the festive atmosphere, including the balloons, bright lights, rousing speeches and cheering, inside Madison Square Garden.

She said that while there are no issues to be resolved or differences that will surface at the convention, the party's diversity is represented by the speeches at the convention of Democrats supporting the re-election of Bush such as Rep. Zel Miller of Georgia, the convention's keynote speaker, and former New York City Mayor Ed Koch.

Former Virginia Lieutenant Governor John H. Hager, who served as the state's homeland security chief for both Republican Gov. Gilmore and current Democratic Gov. Mark Warner, said he's awaiting confirmation as an Assistant Secretary of Education for the Bush administration and is making plans to move to Washington, D.C.

Other Northern Virginia GOP activists who've become familiar names through unsuccessful bids for public office are among the alternates and include Buzz Hawley and Kamal Nawash. The City of Falls Church's Republican Committee chair Ralph McGehee is also an alternate.