Say Anything Blog

The Nevada Republican Party decided Thursday not to reconvene its scuttled state convention this month, claiming it couldn’t generate enough interest to reach a legal quorum to elect delegates to the national convention in St. Paul, Minn.

Instead, the party’s executive board, in a private conference call July 25, would decide who from Nevada will attend the Republican National Convention to formally nominate U.S. Sen. John McCain.

The state party abruptly ended its state convention in April to head off a delegation of Ron Paul supporters who had captured control of the proceedings and appeared on track to elect a majority slate to the Sept. 1-4 national convention.

Party officials planned to reconvene on July 26. But only about 300 delegates sent in RSVPs, well short of the 675 needed for a quorum.

..."I don’t ever remember such chaos in the party,” said Barbara Vucanovich, a former congresswoman who has been involved in party politics since the early 1950s. “Frankly, its an embarrassment for our state and also makes it difficult for John McCain. He needs all the electoral votes he can get.”