HILADELPHIA - The nomination votes for George W. Bush are pouring in, and it's almost unanimous - but not quite. As the ''rolling roll call'' of states continues, six votes have been cast for Alan Keyes. And as of last night, there was one lonely vote for John McCain, straight from the state of Massachusetts.
Dr. Dwight Stowell, a delegate from Royalston, refused to switch his vote to Bush, despite fervent pleading from fellow delegates and a last-minute call from a top McCain aide.
So the final count from the Bay State was: 35 for Bush, one abstention, and one for McCain from a bow-tied Stowell, who said his decision was ''a very emotional thing.''
''I thought about it a lot, and I've been hammered all day by McCain's own people to vote for Bush, but in the end, I took a page out of John's book,'' Stowell said. ''He said that there are some issues that are greater than the individual, and so I just decided to go ahead and do what I thought was right.''
Delegate Charles Shemchuk, of Athol, also couldn't bring himself to vote for Bush. He abstained.
Shemchuk said he was unhappy with the Bush campaign in the South Carolina primary and decided to abstain ''as a message to the Bush campaign that he may have to moderate his stand on some things.''
Besides, he said, he couldn't ignore the McCain fervor back home: ''I represent people back in Massachusetts who sent me here as a McCain delegate, and I have to have some respect for them, too.''
Their votes marked an almost-successful end to the lobbying campaign by McCain's top supporters and staff, who had urged Massachusetts delegates to cast their votes for Bush, even though McCain won the state primary with 65 percent of the vote. It was what McCain wanted, Jean Inman, the delegation chairman said, and what the Arizona senator requested when he released his delegates Sunday night.
But turning delegates away from McCain proved a difficult fight. Of the 37 delegates, 30 had worked on the senator's campaign and still felt an emotional attachment.
In the end, a sense of loyalty prompted many delegates to switch.
''I'm going to vote for Governor Bush. That's who my boss told me to vote for,'' said delegate Gary Roberts, who graduated from the Naval Academy with McCain in 1958.
Massachusetts wasn't the only state to have trouble reaching unanimity. When New Jersey's turn came last night, a spokeswoman announced that ''in the spirit of unity,'' the state requested a pass.
Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.
