Even Woodbury admits Nevada GOP unity dream has faded

TAMPA, Fla.

It's Bruce Woodbury's sixth straight Republican National Convention, but he could be excused this week for feeling like the odd man out.

Way out.

A delegate to the previous five affairs, Woodbury is an alternate this time. Despite the fact his favorite candidate, Mitt Romney, won February's Nevada caucuses by a wide margin over a field that included Ron Paul, who placed a distant third, it was the Paul supporters who managed to stack the convention delegation. That put Woodbury on the sidelines of what has become an entertaining sideshow to the predictable main event.

That shuffle set the stage for Tuesday night's political wardrobe malfunction courtesy of delegate chairman and devoted Paul man Wayne Terhune. Paul supporters from several states dreamed of having their candidate's name placed in nomination, but they were outflanked by convention rules officials and outgunned by the reality that - like him or not - this was Mitt's party, though they can cry if they want to.

And cry they did.

The Nevada GOP's handwringing over the embarrassing hubbub has been almost as over the top as Paul supporters' talk of political revolution. (It's just a suggestion, but perhaps the Paul revolution would be better fought in the field than on the floor and under the lights of a thoroughly choreographed event.)

Where surely some folks heard the defiant shouts of patriots, a majority ignored the calls and wrote off the protesters as sore losers. The wheels of the circus wagon simply kept rolling.

Paul received an acknowledgment in the form of a flattering film during the convention, and his son, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, was granted a coveted speaker's spot. But even as the patron saint of America's libertarians worked the crowd at the Tampa Bay Times Forum, Ron Paul played coy when asked whether he would endorse Romney.

He told Fox News he wasn't planning to endorse Romney during the convention and hadn't ruled out voting for Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson.

"Put me down as undecided," Paul said.

Put Romney's supporters down as quietly seething and the Nevada GOP's traditional leaders as beside themselves.

Which leads us back to the dedicated, understated Woodbury, the former Clark County commissioner whose family has dedicated much of its life to Republican causes. He knows the question that's coming and shrugs.

"It's always a challenge to come out of the nominating process and then the convention with unity and then also be able to reach out to Democrats and independents," he says with his wife at his side. "The way the parties have become polarized it's more of a challenge because to become nominated, you've got to show that as a Democrat you're a pretty strong liberal and as a Republican you're a strong conservative."

But, yes, as a matter of fact the Paul protest was a distraction.

"We were told at the Republican State Convention repeatedly by speakers that they were going to follow the rules," Woodbury says. "Romney was supposed to get 20 delegates, and Ron Paul was supposed to get eight. They thought, well if you're going to dis us, we're not going to follow those rules."

Paul's supporters are a little like the man himself: not as much interested in being accepted as in being heard.

"In terms of the convention as a whole, no one noticed. The only people who noticed were Nevadans," Woodbury says. "It was like a gnat flying around your head. You swat it away."

Trouble is, any talk about the Nevada Republican Party coming together is now impossible. Even diehard GOP member Woodbury admits, "It has a potentially negative impact, to some extent. But the (Paul) people we talked to in Nevada were never going to vote for Mitt Romney anyway."

With Paul's patriots in charge of the delegation, the level-headed Woodbury will remain the odd man out.

Email columnist John L. Smith at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith. Follow him on Twitter @jlnevadasmith.