CONVENTION DAILY

The GOP Folks Running the Show

For the past 18 months, a team of seasoned veterans along with some enthusiastic neophytes have been working hard to bring off a good event.

by Corine Hegland

Mon. Jul 28, 2008


Operative Profiles• Maria Cino
• David Nash
• Mike Miller
• Matt Burns
• Jeff Larson

Related: Denver Operatives

The Republican National Committee's Committee on Arrangements, with the assistance of a local host committee, organizes the quadrennial GOP convention. The party's 2008 festivities might be the first such event of either party in which the organizational chart is entirely headed by women: RNC Co-Chair Jo Ann Davidson chairs the Committee on Arrangements; former Deputy Transportation Secretary Maria Cino is its president and CEO; Mel Raines, a former assistant to Vice President Cheney, is the vice president; and Cynthia Lesher, the president and CEO of Northern States Power Company-Minnesota, presides over the host committee.

To translate the 2008 plans into on-the-ground reality, Cino has put together a team of seasoned hands and convention neophytes. Many of her coordinators are working on at least their fifth convention; at their side, she has placed relative newcomers whom she hopes to see run future conventions.