GOP delegates from area say security tight at convention

Republican delegate Donna Lichtenegger of Jackson hopes anti-Bush protesters won't disrupt the Republican National Convention in New York City this week.

Thousands of protesters are expected to stage demonstrations in the Big Apple this week while more than 4,800 delegates and alternates gather at Madison Square Garden to nominate and cheer for the re-election of President Bush. The convention opens today and runs through Thursday.

"I am actually more worried about the protesters than I am about terrorists," said Lichtenegger, one of two Southeast Missouri residents who will be voting delegates at the convention. The other is Karmen Foster of Poplar Bluff.

"A lot of people are saying this could be another 1968," said Lichtenegger, referring to violent demonstrations against the Vietnam War that occurred at the Democratic convention in Chicago.

This marks the first Republican convention ever held in New York. "It is not a bastion of conservatism," Lichtenegger said, acknowledging that the GOP is clearly the minority party in the city.

Lichtenegger, who is attending her third national convention -- she was an alternate in 1996 and a delegate in 2000 -- said security is expected to be even tighter than it was in Philadelphia four years ago. "This is going to be incredible," she said.

Lichtenegger said she might try to find time to go to the site of the former World Trade Center towers that were destroyed in the terrorist attacks three years ago.

She said a brother of a friend of her daughter was killed when the twin towers collapsed. "If I go it will be because of that experience and to just say a prayer," Lichtenegger said.

Karmen Foster said she's looking forward to the convention, which is her third convention but her first as a delegate on the convention floor.

Foster attended the 1988 and 1992 Republican conventions with her father, state Sen. Bill Foster.

But at those conventions, Karmen Foster was seated far away from the action. This time, her father will be seated in "the nosebleed seats," she said.

Karmen Foster knows security will be tight. Delegates can't even bring umbrellas into the convention hall, she said.

"I just hope it doesn't rain," said Foster, who expects that she and other members of the Missouri delegation will walk the 10 blocks from their hotel to the convention center.

"It is going to be impossible to get a cab," said Lloyd Smith of Sikeston, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson's chief of staff and an alternate delegate.

While the outcome of the convention is certain, Foster said the convention is important to the GOP's effort to re-elect Bush. "I think it is really important to help bring the Republican Party together and let people feel good about what they stand for," she said.

A fourth-grade teacher in the Poplar Bluff School District, Foster said her students are excited she is attending the convention.

"I had a few volunteer to go in my luggage," she said.

Delegates and alternates have to pay their own expenses, including lodging. The motel bill alone will add up to about $1,000.

Foster said that as a teacher she can't classify the trip as sick leave. "I will be docked a week of pay," she said.

Still, she said it's worth the price. "I'm just standing up for what I believe in," she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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