Votes yield convention reward for Missouri

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Anyone looking for evidence of recent Republican gains in Missouri -- and the state's importance to President Bush -- need look no further than Missouri's 57 delegates to the Republican National Convention.

Missouri's delegation to the convention that starts today is nearly two-thirds larger than the group that went to the 2000 Republican National Convention -- a direct reward for the state's Republican votes during the past four years.

And Missouri's many delegates will have plenty of perks this year in New York -- rooms at the headquarters hotel and access to a skybox in Madison Square Gardens, where the main events will be held, to name a few. Part of the reason is because Missourians hold sway within the national party.

Missouri has "always been a key battleground state, at least in the past few cycles" of presidential elections, said Ann Wagner, co-chair of the Republican National Committee and chairwoman of the Missouri Republican Party. "We'll have clout because of that standing, because we'll have more delegates who will be participating and because, really, there are so many of us up here nationally that are involved."

The main business of the convention is to officially nominate Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney as the Republican ticket for Nov. 2 election against Democratic challengers John Kerry and John Edwards.

The winner of Missouri gets its 11 electoral votes. And only once in the past century has the winner of Missouri failed to win the White House.

That fact is well-known to politicians, who must court a microcosm of America when they come to Missouri -- a state split among urban and rural interests where the residents' race, age, marital status and educational achievement all closely mirror national demographics.

Missouri's population also is fairly evenly divided among Democrats, Republicans and independent voters.

Yet four years ago, Missouri had just 35 delegates to the Republican National Convention, the lowest number in records dating to 1980, according to Wagner. This year's total of 57 is by far the highest during that time.

Following the rules

Under Republican rules, Missouri was rewarded with 12 additional delegates because it voted for Bush in 2000. (The state voted for Democrat Bill Clinton in 1996 and 1992.) Missouri gained two more delegates because Republicans won control of the state House and Senate in recent years. And Missouri got two additional delegates because it has two Republican U.S. senators -- the second of which, Jim Talent, ousted Democrat Jean Carnahan in 2002.

All states also gained three delegates to the Republican convention thanks to the work of one Missourian. State Republican Party treasurer Harvey Tettlebaum successfully amended national rules to consider each state's party chair and national committee members as automatic delegates, freeing up three spots for at-large delegates.

Wagner, in her national party role, helped arrange many of the details of the convention, and plans to open up her convention skybox to fellow Missourians.

Among other Missourians holding sway at the national gathering will be Sen. Kit Bond, who is to briefly address the convention sometime between 1 and 2 p.m. today, and Rep. Roy Blunt, the third-ranking House Republican who is to deliver keynote addresses to the Ohio and Louisiana delegations. Sunday night, Missouri House Speaker Catherine Hanaway, who is running for Missouri secretary of state, was added to the schedule of today's speakers, with a spot at 1:25 p.m.

Missouri Democratic Party chairman Roger Wilson, a former governor, acknowledges that Republicans have gained ground in Missouri. But he contends it is only a cyclical change, not an indication of a long-term trend.

"They've had more success in recent history, but we've seen the ebb and flow. We've seen total Democratic or total Republican slates wiped out in elections," Wilson said.

For example, Republicans held five of the six executive offices in the mid-1980s, but Democrats reversed that in the 1990s.