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Web posted Wednesday,
September 1, 2004
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Delegates stay busy outside convention, too
By Walter Jones
Morris News Service
NEW
YORK - S.C. Legislator Catherine Ceips keeps busy
in New York even when the Republican National
Convention isn't in session. She's networking with
legislators from other states and attending
seminars to better equip her as a lawmaker when
she gets back home to Beaufort.
Other
delegates from South Carolina volunteered to help
paint a senior-citizens center, pick up trash
along a river and do other charity jobs organized
by the Republican Party. It's not all speeches,
receptions and shopping, they say.
New York
holds a few surprises, too.
Ceips stumbled
upon photos of her own yard in the Bubba Gump
Shrimp Co. restaurant, which ties into the Tom
Hanks movie "Forrest Gump" that was partially
filmed outside her home.
"It was so funny
to be walking in Times Square to see my river
house," said Ceips, a first timer in the Big
Apple.
While she introduced herself to the
manager, she didn't finagle a free shrimp dinner
out of the encounter. She had bigger fish to fry,
so to speak.
"I came up early to do New
York, but now it's work."
She even skipped
a scenic cruise organized for the South Carolina
delegation so she could return voter phone calls
and answer mail.
She's shuttled between
meetings with various issue groups and caucused
informally with legislators from across the
country who share her interests. They're comparing
notes about bills and parliamentary tactics. One
topic, besides President Bush's re-election, keeps
her attention: human trafficking. The coordination
with federal officials and other cross-country
legislators during the convention, she hopes, will
lead to strengthening of laws to police the
exploitation of young women and girls who are
virtual slaves to con men who lure them to the
United States with tales of good-paying
jobs.
For North Augusta alternate Susan
Swanson, time outside the Madison Square Garden
convention sessions has been spent attending
rallies and seminars for conservative causes and
candidates, like Alan Keyes who is running for an
open Illinois senate seat.
"We don't want
to go back to a liberal agenda," she said. "It
frightens me to think of John Kerry being
president."
Like most delegates, Swanson
has seen the demonstrators around New York, heard
their chants and drum beats, and concluded that
the protesters are out of step with the rest of
the country. Conversations with cab drivers and
other New Yorkers convinced her that even a
heavily Democratic state has voters who favor the
pro-life and pro-marriage planks that are in the
Republican platform.
"The platform is what
I believe the majority of Americans want," she
said.
Delegate Gary Bunker of Aiken has
squeezed in time to talk with delegates from other
states, such as those from Virginia and Louisiana
who are also housed in the same posh hotel facing
Central Park.
"There's been a lot of talk
about who's going to be the nominee in 2008," he
said. "No one thinks (Vice President Dick) Cheney
wants to run."
Among the names mentioned
are Virginia Sen. George Allen, Arizona Sen. John
McCain and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
President Bush hasn't even been renominated yet,
but speculation is as much a pastime for politicos
at this convention as golf and shopping are at a
medical convention. It keeps the delegates
busy.
Walter Jones can be reached at (404)
589-8424 or walter.jones@morris.com
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