First G.O.P. Delegate Goes to Romney (Published 2008)

CASPER, Wyo. — Mitt Romney won the first delegate elected to the Republican National Convention Saturday when Albany County chose Tammy Johnson as its representative to the convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul next September. She defeated a Fred Thompson supporter and an uncommitted candidate at the county convention in Laramie. Eleven more delegates were to be elected throughout the day in other counties.

Wyoming, never before even a whistle-stop in a Republican nominating campaign because its conventions came late and were overshadowed by primaries in bigger states, chose the first 12 delegates of 2008 at 12 separate county conventions. Iowa Republicans, who have 40 delegates, conducted a straw poll but elected no convention delegates Thursday.

Wyoming Republicans, by violating the dates allowed by the national party, forfeited half, or 14, of the 28 delegates to which the state was entitled. (After Saturday’s 12, two more will be elected at a state convention, giving Wyoming more than the 12 delegates from New Hampshire — penalized for going early, too — who will all be elected Tuesday.)

But state party officials, though they hoped that an eventual nominee would see that those votes were restored, said they did not mind the penalty because the early date enabled them both to get candidates’ attention and to demonstrate that the existing calendar needed fixing.

Mr. Romney made four campaign stops, his wife visited several times, and his sons Josh and Craig stopped in seven counties Friday and Saturday. Other candidates who visited were Fred Thompson, Ron Paul, Duncan Hunter and Sam Brownback — who dropped out last month. “It’s been exciting for us,” said Fred Paraday, the state party chairman. “It’s our first time out of the chute.”

Much of the impetus for this year’s early date came from Tom Sansonetti, a Cheyenne lawyer who chaired the Republican National Committee’s rules committee in 2000 and fought for a system that would preserve February for the smallest states (smaller than Iowa), and allow increasingly big states to follow them over March, April and May.

That plan was killed when aides to the party’s certain nominee, George W. Bush, decided they did not want any floor flights at the convention, and told the convention rules committee to kill it.

Mr. Sansonetti acknowledged last week that he wanted to demonstrate how silly the system is by this midwinter event, which was conducted largely in 30- to 40-degree clear weather, conditions far from predictable for January in Wyoming. “Sometimes you have to have Humpty-Dumpty fall off the wall before you can put him back together again,” he said.

David Norcross of New Jersey, the current chairman of the rules committee of the Republican National Committee, said Wednesday that his panel would begin discussing alternate scheduling rules at a meeting Jan. 17, but would not finish before April.

Because the experience is new to Wyoming, no one other than supporters of a particular candidate offered predictions as to who would win the most delegates in the state. But in one county after another, county chairmen said the Romney campaign had been especially active on the ground, though activity for Mr. Paul and Mr. Thompson was cited in some places.

Chairmen repeatedly observed that the early activity was both unusual and welcome. Saturday’s convention voters were chosen at precinct caucuses last month. David Horning, the Campbell County chairman in Gillette, said attendance then was “three times normal.” Shannon Honaker, the Sweetwater County chairman in Rock Springs, said: “We’re so tremendously excited. It’s more activity than we’ve ever had.”