Maryland Republicans Think They Can Cut Into Dem Wins BALTIMORE, MD (wypr) - Unlike Maryland's Democrats, who arrived at their convention last week still nursing grudges from a bruising primary campaign, the Republicans go to St. Paul united behind their presumptive nominee, Senator John McCain.

"We're all going out there with one mission and that's to come back and elect John McCain president," said Don Murphy. Murphy is the chairman of the state Republican delegation.

Murphy said that the strategy for uniting Republicans included rewarding, rather than punishing, Republicans who had worked for other candidates.

"There were 20 spots in our delegation once the primary was over, and we basically allocated those 20 spots to members of the party who had worked for other candidates in other campaigns," Murphy said.

Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold, who backed former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, got a spot as an at-large delegate.

"I'm excited about this particular convention because I think this is going to be a razor thin election, decided by one or two states, and that John McCain is the kind of pragmatic, bipartisan problem solver, which I particularly like, and so I'm enthusiastic," Leopold said.

Of course, there remain voters for whom McCain is not conservative enough. Leopold reminds them that McCain has voted with the Republican agenda more than 90 percent of the time.

"He's pro-life, pro-gun, pro-government spending reduction. So on the basic tenets of Republican conservative philosophy, John McCain is right there," Leopold said.

The Senator may have strengthened his conservative appeal with his selection of Sarah Palin, the first-term governor of Alaska who has a strong anti-abortion record, as the first woman ever on a Republican presidential ticket.

Carmen Amedori served on this year's GOP platform committee along with House of Delegates minority leader Tony O'Donnell. She compared McCain's introduction of Palin to Democratic nominee Barack Obama's announcement that he was running for president 18 months ago.

It touches you, she said, because you know history is being made.

"The same thing happened today with Sarah Palin. I found myself crying. When it was over I got a text message from Tony O'Donnell. He's like, wow, I hear she's great. I'm very impressed. And I wrote back I'm crying. And he wrote back me too," Amedori said.

Despite the excitement over the Palin announcement, few Maryland Republicans harbor any illusions of carrying this heavily Democratic state for McCain in the fall.

Chris Cavey, chairman of Maryland for McCain, says he believes Republicans can cut into Obama's substantial lead.

"I really believe that we're going to beat the predicted spread once somebody starts making the numbers on Maryland," Cavey said.

That leaves state Republicans unsure about tactics. Murphy says they ought to press hard in Maryland rather than concentrating on the battlegrounds of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

"We Republicans need to keep Democrats bogged down here in Maryland, keep the money here in Maryland, keep the labor here in Maryland, in order that we free up those opportunities for people in the battleground states to win," Murphy said.

On the other hand, Anne Arundel County's John Leopold has been campaigning for McCain in Northern Virginia because the Old Dominion is a toss-up.

"To spend time in Maryland -- of course we're going to rally the troops and hope for the best -- but Maryland is not a toss-up state. That's reality. Our time should be focused on those toss-up states," Leopold said. © Copyright 2009, wypr