GOP Opens Convention to More Women

Several male delegates to the Republican National Convention, including New York Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato and former White House chief of staff Howard H. Baker Jr., have given up their delegate credentials so more women can attend the Houston conclave, party officials said Friday.

D’Amato and Baker, a former U.S. senator from Tennessee, both will have floor passes and be able to sit with their delegations, GOP officials said. However, they will not be able to vote.

Gary Koops, spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said the national party did not pressure D’Amato, Baker or other male delegates to give their credentials to women.

“The Republican National Committee had made it clear that the goal was to have a balanced delegation,” Koops said Friday. “There were no directives or requirements, though.”

Koops said he did not know how many women will be among the 2,210 delegates and 2,210 alternates to the convention in Houston. An Associated Press survey of 2,100 delegates showed about 850 are women, or about 40%.

Half the delegates at last month’s Democratic Convention were women.

Nathan Wright, convention coordinator for the Tennessee Republican Party, said Baker turned his credentials in to the state party “because he wanted to give someone else a chance to represent Tennessee.” Asked whether Baker did this expressly so a woman could attend, Wright said, “It could well have been.”

John Sweeney, executive director of the New York state GOP, said there was no pressure from the RNC to change New York’s delegate slate to include more women. D’Amato turned in his credential as an at-large delegate in April.

But New York Newsday quoted unnamed sources Friday as saying that RNC Chairman Richard N. Bond had been pressing the New York party to make changes for the convention.

“When I saw they had a problem as related to the ratios (between male and female delegates from New York), I indicated to the state chairman I would be more than willing to make an opportunity available to a woman,” D’Amato told Newsday.

A total of 67 of New York’s 200-member delegation are women. But only 15 of those are actual delegates.