By Howard Greninger
TERRE HAUTE — While delegates have a vote during a national convention, Terre Haute attorney James R. Bopp Jr. has a much more involved role as part of a committee that has molded the official platform for the Republican National Convention at Minneapolis/St. Paul.
The convention starts Monday and runs through Thursday, when Sen. John McCain of Arizona will make his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination at St. Paul’s Excel Energy Center.
Bopp, 60, is a national committeeman and is one of three Wabash Valley residents who as delegates are attending the national convention. The convention will host about 2,380 delegates and 2,227 alternate delegates. Randall P. Gentry of Terre Haute is attending as a delegate, and Richard M. Bramer of Sullivan is attending as an alternate delegate.
Indiana has 57 delegates, three of whom are automatic delegates, including Bopp, a member of the Indiana Republican State Central Committee, and 44 alternative delegates. Bopp arrived at the convention site a week ago.
“We develop the platform for the party, which will then be offered for ratification at the convention. I would say generally that it is a thoroughly conservative document that I think McCain can run on,” said Bopp, a member of the GOP Platform Committee.
He has attended five national conventions as a delegate, with the past three as a member of the platform committee.
“One of the areas that was of particular interest to me is language about Obama’s opposition to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act [passed by Congress in 2002], which protects infants that are born alive after an abortion, to make sure they receive the same care that any newborn infant would receive, and Obama opposed that,” said Bopp, who also serves as general counsel for the National Right to Life.
“I think that demonstrates how callous he is to human suffering by the weakest among us, and I also think it demonstrates how thoroughly and radically pro-abortion he [Obama] is. Such a law was passed by Congress and it was passed without opposition. It was good enough for [U.S. Sens.] Barbara Boxer [D-Calif.] and Ted Kennedy [D-Mass.], but is not good enough for [Sen.] Barack Obama,” Bopp said.
Another part of the GOP platform involves energy, Bopp said. President George Bush already has lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling; however, a Congressional ban remains.
“The platform includes the need to make all efforts to increase the supply of oil by drilling now in the United States that is currently severely limited by the Democrat Congress. The platform takes a very strong stand on the need to increase our domestic energy supply in order to reduce costs,” Bopp said.
“It calls for off-shore drilling and on-shore drilling and particularly points out certain areas, including Alaska, where drilling needs to be done,” Bopp said.
Bopp said he thinks the McCain campaign “has been the most accommodating in terms of allowing the platform members, who represent grassroots Republicans, to make sure that the platform reflects our conservative views.”
Gentry, 40, is a delegate in the Eighth Congressional District. He is secretary of the Vigo County Republican Party and was part of a transition team for Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett. Gentry is currently the vice chairman of the Indiana Parole Board, appointed twice to the board by Gov. Mitch Daniels.
“I have not been to a national convention or to Minneapolis, so it’s all new, like being a baby,” he said. “The convention offers a lot of opportunities to network with other states and delegates. We will be teamed up with Hawaii and spending a lot of time with those delegates. We have several different programs for us to attend and break-out sessions.”
Gentry said he had been offered to sit in a “VIP skybox” for McCain’s acceptance speech.
“I have already met McCain when he was at Indianapolis. I just want to take in the sights and sounds. It is a new experience and I want the opportunity to meet other people from other states. I hope to come back with maybe some new ideas on how to do things with the local party and maybe make some new friends in other states. I take it as an honor and at the same time, a learning experience,” Gentry said.
Bramer, 43, is a deputy Indiana Attorney General and is the GOP vice chairman for the Eighth Congressional District. Bramer had been a national delegate in 2000.
He is going as an alternative delegate after he agreed to fill a vacancy. Bramer said he plans to take in a different side of the convention this time around.
“To be honest, last time I took so much time on the convention floor and spent all the time at the convention center. When I came back each night, Jack Kemp and Tim Russert, I found out from others, had been sitting at the hotel bar, so you miss the luminaries that don’t go to the convention center and hang out at the hotel” early in the convention, Bramer said.
“I will go to the convention center, but I want to see other areas and see the city [of Minneapolis] one evening,” he said.
Security at this convention, like in other Republican conventions, is tight, Bramer said, especially as President Bush will attend.
“We have been advised in writing to remain somewhat anonymous as delegates,” Bramer said. “We have been told not to wear credentials outside the convention hall. It is for the security and safety of the delegates.
“It is not really scary, I am 6-foot, 4-inches and 230 pounds, so they will have to get me with the first shot,” Bramer joked. “That’s something that comes with supporting that Second Amendment principle.”
Bramer said he also has met McCain, in Philadelphia and in Indianapolis. Bramer said McCain and the Republican party are “a lot closer to my point of view of where we need to be than the other side. Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden do not reflect Sullivan County values; John McCain does.”
“McCain respects his country, respects the Second Amendment, he is pro-life and respects the military. I am not saying that the other side doesn’t do those, but there is no question with John McCain spending five and one-half years in a prison camp in North Vietnam, there is no question of his service to his country and his commitment to serve his country,” Bramer said.
Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.
