Political Conventions

In a city where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi faces criticism for not being liberal enough, California Republicans gathered this weekend to repair deep divides over how to appeal to an electorate that continues to trend away from the steady diet of conservative candidates and issues served up by the state GOP.

Party unity is on the agenda at the Florida Democrats' Jefferson-Jackson weekend. But first, before celebrating Barack Obama, they'll engage in a little ritual bloodletting. The Obama campaign wants a new selection of some delegates to August's convention in Denver to reward supporters. Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter, for one, endorsed Obama last summer and campaigned for him even as almost every elected Democrat in the county backed Hillary Rodham Clinton.

When delegates travel to the Democratic and Republican nominating conventions late this summer, they'll enter a cocoon of corporate largesse. Democrats will fly to Denver on reduced-fare tickets provided by United Airlines. Many will be picked up in plush new vehicles donated by General Motors that run on fuel made from "waste beer" donated by Molson Coors Brewing Co. Like their GOP counterparts, they'll communicate using state-of-the-art technology provided by Microsoft, Google, Qwest or AT&T.

Every four years, liberal activists follow political power brokers and the world media to the Democratic and Republican party conventions, filling the streets with spirited protest against war, corporate domination and environmental destruction. This year there's a twist: Many protesters will demonstrate outside a convention that will nominate the first black major-party presidential candidate in history, who is opposed to the Iraq war and was once a community organizer and activist in Chicago.

For nearly a decade, city leaders here have wooed the Democrats, hoping to lure their national convention to this often-overlooked town and showcase its new public transit system, bustling downtown and sweeping views of the Rocky Mountains. Municipal leaders were jubilant when they won the right to hold this year's event. But the convention is raising questions about whether this perennial booster town has bitten off more than it can chew.

Financial giants and other large firms now being bailed out by the government spent millions underwriting the Democratic and Republican conventions last summer, just weeks before coming to Washington seeking multibillion-dollar handouts. The big donors included AIG, Ford Motor Co., Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Freddie Mac.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will address the annual conference of Britain's Conservative Party, the party said Sunday, citing the California Republican's commitment to the environment. Conservative leader David Cameron has been attempting to reposition his party, once led by Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill, in the center, to the dismay of some of the Tory faithful. But the party, which last won a general election 15 years ago, has seen an increase in support in some polls.

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- Anticipating a report to Congress next week on progress in the war in Iraq, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) offered a forceful defense Saturday of his stick-it-out approach at a state Republican convention still reverberating from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's warning that the party must move to the political center or risk irrelevancy. With less than four months before absentee ballots go out for California's Feb.

The battle for the Republican nomination to succeed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took a nasty turn Saturday as a trio of Silicon Valley candidates tussled over fiscal plans and contender Meg Whitman's apparent failure to vote until she was 46 years old. Most aggressive was state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a mapping software mogul who called on Whitman to drop out of the race for the good of the party. The former chief executive of EBay, he argued, would lead Republicans to certain defeat in a general election, thanks to the civic indifference indicated by her voting record.

To Trisha Bowler of Diamond Bar, a proud member of a Republican women's group, Meg Whitman's failure to vote for most of her adult life rules her out as a choice in the 2010 race for governor. "That's a big one with me," said Bowler, decked out Sunday in bejeweled, red-white-and-blue GOP regalia at the party's weekend convention in Indian Wells. The same is true of Whitman's recent turn to the Republican Party, which she joined two years ago. "I'm not thrilled with someone who just became a Republican in 2007; that doesn't sit well with me," Bowler said.