This past week I was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel with the Maryland Delegation to the 2008 Republican National Convention at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Minn.

Some 45,000 delegates, alternates, volunteers, members of the media and others attended the convention, according to a Republican National Convention news release.

The Maryland delegation numbered 71 elected delegates, alternates and national committee representatives.

Carroll County was represented by Carmen Amedori, an elected convention delegate; and Larry Helminiak, delegate at-large. Also traveling with the Maryland delegation from Carroll were Maryland Republican Party Executive Director Justin Ready and April Rose, also of MDGOP.

Although Don Murphy was the Delegation chair, much of the nuts and bolts for a complicated week of logistics was handled by Chris Cavey, who hails from the Baltimore County side of Hampstead.

It's worth noting that today's presidential nomination process is very different from the early days of our Republic, when the two major parties, the Federalists and the Democrat-Republicans -- the forerunner of the today's Democratic party -- determined their respective presidential nominees by a "caucus" made-up of members of Congress or state legislatures. This process prevailed through 1828.

What we now know as the Republican party essentially began in 1854 and replaced the Whig Party, which had replaced the much earlier Federalist party.

The first national political convention of what we now know as the two major political parties was held by the Democratic party in Baltimore, May 21-23, 1832.

According to a brief history of the Maryland Democratic Party written by Carroll County historian and former Maryland Secretary of State John T. Willis, it "was held at the Atheneum (and Warfield's Church) ... on the southwest corner of St. Paul and Lexington streets. Twelve delegates from each county and six delegates from Baltimore city were invited to attend."

And according to the Washington Congressional Research Service, "In the 19th century, difficulties of travel led to the selection of centrally located cities as convention sites. Baltimore, located midway along the Atlantic seaboard, was a favorite choice in early years."

From 1832 to 1872, eight of the 12 Democratic national conventions were held in Baltimore. Considering that two of the main routes to Baltimore from points west travel through Carroll County an historian's imagination can run wild as to what national political figures may have passed through Carroll in those days.

Meanwhile, another historic tidbit is that the last Republican National Convention held in Minneapolis-St. Paul was in 1892.

Qwest Communications, which handled all the technology demands of last week's convention, noted that in 1892, the convention attendees "relied solely on the use of the telegraph and did not employ a single telephone ..."

Pair of mayors

Traveling back in time to Westminster, last week's Sunday Carroll Eagle history trivia question asked "Who were the two mayors of Westminster who served our community from 1916 until 1938?"

Jamie Wehler, Michele Johnson, Scott Creutzer and Anna C. Walsh all knew that Mayor Howard E. Koontz served from 1916-1926 and George E. Matthews served from 1926-1938.

Johnson is this week's winner of the cherished Sunday Carroll Eagle mug.

For this week's question let's go back to the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn. As we've already noted, the last Republican convention in the Twin Cities took place June 1892.

What American president was nominated to stand for re-election at that convention?

Think you know? Drop me an e-mail at kdayhoff@carr.org with Sunday Carroll Eagle in the subject line.

When he is not being a political junkie (and actually, even when he is), Kevin Dayhoff can be reached at kdayhoff@carr.org.

user comments (0)