hey want so badly to attend the GOP convention next week that they traveled to Philadelphia to lobby for the right.
But more bad news arose yesterday for a group of Massachusetts Republicans who had won convention spots in local caucuses but who were forced to cede their seats to John McCain supporters.
After a 45-minute hearing and hours of debate, a Republican National Committee panel dismissed the latest in a string of appeals from the group, and said Massachusetts had correctly followed its party rules.
Although Massachusetts holds caucuses to choose convention delegates, state rules give the primary winner's campaign wide discretion over delegate certification. This spring, McCain's state chairwoman, Jean Inman, bypassed 10 delegates and 14 alternates, replacing them with McCain loyalists who had received fewer votes.
Unfair, said the ousted delegates and their supporters. Four of them appealed in person at the convention site.
''You can't have people in a republic overthrowing elections because they don't like the results,'' said Alan Cousin, who heads the libertarian-leaning Republican Liberty Caucus.
No one spoke at the hearing for Inman or the state party. But the committee ruled that Inman had acted responsibly, although its report said she and state GOP leaders seemed to have shown a ''lack of respect'' for the challengers' due process.
Cousin said the challengers will appeal the decision to another credentials committee this week.
Challengers say their dispute symbolizes a larger battle: who best represents the state Republican Party. Some of the ousted delegates are longtime party foot soldiers, while some of their replacements are political newcomers.
''They want us to go out and work for them in the trenches, but they don't want us to represent them in Philadelphia,'' said Anne Hilbert, who spearheaded charter reform in Weymouth and who attended the 1996 GOP convention.
But rewarding new Republicans is good strategy for the future, Inman said.
''We want to keep them, keep them excited, keep them involved, and get them right on into other candidates' campaigns,'' she said.
