2008 Maryland GOP Fall Convention (part 1)

As I did back in May (and because I have a number of photos to place in each post) I've again decided to subdivide the coverage of this year's Maryland Republican Party Fall Convention into two parts. The first part this evening will essentially talk about the social aspect of the convention, most of which occurred Friday night. Tomorrow's second part will delve more into what was said and done at the Friday evening Executive Committee meeting and the convention itself, which took place Saturday morning. That part will also discuss our breakfast and luncheon speakers - Harford County Executive David Craig and Scott Migli of Wilson Research Strategies, respectively.

It's a Friday night tradition for those Central Committee members to attend hospitality rooms and suites that adjunct groups like the Young Republicans or various campaigners put in place. This gives Republicans from all over the state an opportunity to mix and mingle with each other.

Normally these begin after the Executive Committee meeting closes, but this time many partiers got underway a little earlier. The hospitality suite put together by this group started before the others:

Because not all that many of the Central Committee people sit in on the Executive Committee meeting, this quickly got to be a hopping place. And I got to make acquaintances with the aforementioned Delegate Stifler.

A group known for having energetic and entertaining hospitality suites is the Maryland Young Republicans, and they did not disappoint in this instance either.

In fact, it was at this suite I finally had the opportunity to meet fellow Red Maryland bloggers Brian Griffiths and Greg Kline. Perhaps they have observations on the events as well, but they didn't have camera or notepad on them as far as I could tell.

There's no doubt that most in the venue would dearly love to see former Lieutenant Governor and U.S. Senate candidate Michael Steele become the new head of the RNC, and this sign makes it quite clear that no good logo stays unused for long.

The suite itself ebbed and flowed like the others did, although I think they had the best adult beverage selections. (Sorry, no pictures of the liquor stash.) The two gentlemen who hosted the party are immortalized here.

Perhaps it's because Michael Steele likely knows he has much of our support in his back pocket, but he was a no-show at the party - and at the convention, for that matter. Had Steele made time for the affair, he would've needed a room more like this one.

Senator Pipkin was into the spirit of things. If you look closely the good Senator was attired in Hawaiian-style shirt, just left of center in the photo.

But it was indeed a rough election for First Congressional District Republicans. This board was on an exhibitor's table, and it had a message for the GOP that perhaps things were taken too much for granted.

The exhibitor, Nancy Hoyt, is a cartographer and GIS expert who merged political and geographical data to show areas where the GOP had work to do. Indeed, we did have work to do and that would begin bright and early the next morning.