Augusta’s own ready to be GOP National delegate

By Bob Stuart

Published: August 20, 2008

Augusta County Republican Lynn Mitchell is anticipating a total experience as a Sixth District delegate to the upcoming Republican National Convention that starts Sept. 1 in St. Paul, Minn.
“It means more when you have worked from the local level up,’’ Mitchell said Wednesday. She has served in a variety of capacities with the Augusta County GOP, Sixth District and Virginia Republican Party. “It is much more meaningful than if someone had been elected and hadn’t done anything.”
Known to many people by the name of her popular blog, SWAC Girl, Mitchell will attend the convention with daughter Katy, a Blue Ridge Community College student. Mitchell plans to have fun but take her duties seriously.
“We go as representatives of people in the district. We vote on the party platform and may have some input,’’ she said. “I’m going not just to have a good time.”
Having her daughter along will enrich the experience, Mitchell said. “It will be exciting to share this historical event,’’ she said. “We will be sharing living history.”
State Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Mount Solon, knows the feeling. When he attended the 1984 GOP convention in Dallas as a delegate, three of his children participated in the opening ceremony dressed like cowboys and Native Americans. His wife and children sat in front of Nancy Reagan as President Reagan delivered his nomination acceptance speech.
“We thoroughly enjoyed it,’’ Hanger said.
Del. Steve Landes, R-Weyers Cave, attended the 1992 Republican Convention in Houston as a Sixth District delegate. He remembers shaking hands with George W. Bush, the future president whose father was the nominee that year. The younger Bush visited with the Virginia delegation.
Reagan provided a defining moment, delivering his final convention speech, enriched with some of his patented one-liners: “Tonight is a very special night for me. Of course, at my age, every night’s a very special night.”
“It was a great speech and they went all-out to provide entertainment,’’ Landes said. “You met people from all other states. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Part of the experience for Mitchell will be meeting and listening to Republicans from all over country “milling around,’’ she said.
Mitchell also relishes the thought of meeting presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain.
She is heartened by the Arizona senator’s recent strong showing in national polls. A Reuters/Zogby poll Wednesday had McCain leading Democrat Barack Obama by five percentage points. Other polls showed the race as dead even. Obama has held leads of as much as seven percentage points over the summer.
But Mitchell is among a host of Republicans worried about the prospect of McCain tabbing Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut as a running mate.
Mitchell, like many in the GOP, appreciates Lieberman’s strong support of the Iraq war. But, she said, “he is not a conservative candidate on other issues. I’m not sure that would be a wise choice.”
She also is eager to see what kind of poll bump the two candidates will get from the respective conventions.
Mitchell likes the fact that the Democratic National Convention comes next week, the week before the Republican Convention.
“Obama will get a bounce from that convention,” she said, “but their bounce will go into our convention week.”