eorge W. Bush, 45 points behind John S. McCain in tracking polls, appears the likely loser in Tuesday's GOP presidential primary here, but another election-year battle is raging behind the scenes.
Governor Paul Cellucci, a Bush-backer from the start, had hoped to be a delegate at the national Republican convention in Philadelphia this summer.
And he and other Massachusetts Bush supporters may yet be.
But not if Jean Inman has her way.
Inman, the state campaign chairwoman for the Arizona senator, yesterday said her candidate's lawyers are poring over delegate selection rules. She said the rules were written last summer by Massachusetts GOP officials with one thing in mind: That Bush would be the winner in this state.
''The McCain counsel has the rules and they're looking them over ... to ensure that the process is protected and honored,'' Inman said. ''They say don't worry, Jean. But I worry.''
Part of why she worries is that after the 1998 gubernatorial election, Cellucci ordered a clean sweep of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee, of which Inman was the chairwoman. It was a move she did not appreciate. Cellucci handpicked his own leader, Brian Cresta, to take her place. John Brockelman was chosen as executive director.
Now, it's Brockelman who is defending the rules, saying Cellucci deserves the same honor other Massachusetts governors have received: One of the seven at-large delegate seats handed out by the state GOP. The other 30 seats, three from each of the state's congressional districts, are elected during local caucuses.
Although state party rules and conventional wisdom say the winner of the primary receives all 37 delegates, that may not be the case.
''When you have caucuses you seek to get your people elected,'' said Brockelman, suggesting that Bush supporters could be selected throughout the state, not just for the handpicked at-large delegate seats.
But Brockelman insists that if Cellucci is chosen as a delegate, the governor will be forced to vote for McCain at the convention. At least, he will be obligated to do so on the first ballot.
If the nomination goes to a contested second ballot, Cellucci could vote however he wishes.
Inman is worried about that.
''I know this is politics,'' Inman added. ''But this is big.''
Brockelman contends that it is highly unlikely that the GOP convention will go to a second ballot this time around.
Inman said she also does not think it's fair that many of the state's top Republicans are Bush supporters and likely to be selected as delegates, getting a chance to participate in a quadrennial slice of history.
When asked whether it would be fair to have Bush supporters go to the convention to cast the initial votes for McCain, Brockelman said: ''It's not my job to answer that. My job is to explain what the Republican convention delegate selection rules are.''
Those rules, Brockelman added, were approved unanimously last June ''by the exact same Republican State Committee that elected Jean Inman chair of the party in 1997. I'm surprised the McCain campaign has this much time on their hands considering Super Tuesday is just a few days away.''
