Romney’s absence noted
Presidential contender Mitt Romney’s decision to bail at the last minute from the Oklahoma Republican Party’s state convention last weekend may have cost him some support among delegates.
Romney, a former Massachussetts governor, was not among the top four finishers in a straw poll taken of the 885 delegates during Saturday’s convention in Oklahoma City. Romney was campaigning Saturday in South Carolina.
The top winner was Fred Thompson, former U.S. senator from Tennessee and former co-chief counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee in the 1970s. He can be seen playing the character of Arthur Branch in the NBC television series “Law and Order.”
Thompson, who has not announced he is running for president, received 32.5 percent of the votes.
Another unannounced candidate came in second. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich received 15.2 percent.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani came in third with 9.4 percent. U.S. Rep. Tom Decredo, R-Colo., came in fourth with 8.6 percent.
Other results were not given.
Senate co-President Pro Tempore Glenn Coffee, R-Oklahoma City, told delegates he expects the GOP will gain control of the Senate next year. Voters actually elected 25 Republicans to the Senate, he told delegates, but Sen. Nancy Riley of Tulsa switched last year from a Republican to a Democrat.
He said he felt betrayed by her decision and predicted Republicans will target that seat.
Less than half the Republican delegates attended Saturday’s convention. Jeane Hershey of Hooker was the only delegate from the three counties in the Panhandle to attend.
She said she made the nearly 300-mile trip to Oklahoma City even though a few days earlier she completed her seventh week of radiation therapy for cancer.
Michael McNutt
Capitol Bureau
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