State’s House Members Not on Delegate Roster

A cross section of California political society--mayors, city council members, county commissioners, assemblymen and the governor himself--will be heading to San Diego as delegates to the Republican National Convention in August. But the group will include not one of the state’s 26 GOP congressional representatives.

That’s because earlier this year, the governor’s office and officials of Bob Dole’s presidential campaign decided that no members of Congress would be named delegates, bestowing the honor instead on politically savvy citizens and officials who requested the coveted delegate status.

The rules of the Republican National Committee provide all members of Congress with convention floor privileges--not full voting status, but pretty close.

“In essence they are already accorded delegate status,” said Marty Wilson, who helped oversee the California delegate selection team. “They’re just not named delegates. But they can do everything that delegates do: sit on the floor, go to the convention, ride our buses, drink our booze, eat our food.”

The members of Congress cannot vote, of course, but because California is a winner-take-all state, all of the delegates’ votes have already been awarded as a result of Dole’s victory in the state primary.

Early in the campaign season, the loyalties of the state’s GOP congressional delegation were sharply split among several presidential hopefuls--including Gov. Pete Wilson during his abortive run for the White House--giving rise to a jumble of endorsements, pseudo-endorsements and fence-sitting.

By treating all GOP House members equally, potential complications growing out of that muddle were avoided.

If any members were miffed by the ruling, they are keeping their own counsel.

“We had several [members] who called and asked, ‘What’s the deal?’ ” said Marty Wilson. “But we explained the situation and asked that they not push too hard. When they found out that their seatmate [in the House] was not going to be a delegate either, they accepted it.”

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San Diego Bound

This is a partial list of Southland Republicans chosen as delegates to this summer’s GOP National Convention in San Diego.

Fred Aguilar, assemblyman

Mike Antonovich, LA County supervisor

George Argyros, Orange County developer

Robert Bartlett, mayor of Monrovia

Marian Bergeson, Orange County supervisor

Michael D. Bradbury, Ventura County district attorney

Donald Bren, Irvine Co. chairman

Lod Cook, ret. chairman of Arco

Dr. Tirso del Junco, former state GOP chairman

George Deukmejian, former California governor

Matthew Fong, state treasurer

Hurtt, state Senate Republican leader

Marilyn Lyon, Rancho Palos Verdes councilwoman

Rosario Marin, Huntington Park councilwoman

Ky Ngo, chairman of the Vietnamese American PAC

Curt Pringle, state Assembly speaker

James Rogan, assemblyman

Nao Takasugi, assemblyman