Montclair Delegates Head To Republican National Convention

I have committed to providing Montclair Patch with a daily report from the Republican National Convention in in Tampa all week.

My wife Susan—a delegate— and I are flying to Tampa, Isaac permitting, on Sunday afternoon and checking into the Sirato Beach Hotel, where the New Jersey delegation is staying.

So you have some background information ... my wife, Susan, will be a Mitt Romney delegate to the convention representing the new 10th Congressional district.

I am an honorary delegate.

Each Congressional district gets three delegates and three alternate delegates. They are elected during the primary and their names are on the same line, but separate from the presidential candidate’s name. The delegate is obligated to vote for the presidential candidate that wins the most votes on the first ballot, but is free to vote for someone else after the first ballot. Since Romney has more than enough votes for a victory on the first ballot, this should not be an issue.

Susan Straten, your delegate, taught biology at Montclair Kimberley Academy for over 20 years before joining me at Associated Fire Protection as office manager. Currently, Susan is the Republican Town Chair in Montclair and has worked hard to get people to join the Republican Party.

I retired as owner of a small company in Paterson about five years ago. During the time I was rather apolitical, but did help on the Montclair 1988 campaign and served on the redevelopment board for six years.

After retiring, I ran for Congress twice against Congressman Bill Pascrell, first getting 30 percent of the vote and then in 2010 getting 40 percent of the vote.

I will try to be as objective as possible in my daily reports. I will try to give you a feeling from the perspective of a lowly delegate of what it is like to be at a political convention.

If you have questions, please put them in the comments section and I will do my best to answer them accurately.

Check in with Montclair Patch every day for my reports or, better yet, sign up for the Montclair Patch newsletter.