{"id":10159,"date":"2012-08-24T11:16:12","date_gmt":"2012-08-24T17:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=10159"},"modified":"2012-08-27T12:02:18","modified_gmt":"2012-08-27T18:02:18","slug":"idaho-elected-officials-multimillionaire-romney-backer-vandersloot-head-to-rnc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/08\/24\/idaho-elected-officials-multimillionaire-romney-backer-vandersloot-head-to-rnc\/","title":{"rendered":"Idaho Elected Officials, Multimillionaire Romney Backer VanderSloot Head To RNC"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Mladen Antonov \/ AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>

Workers prepare the main stage ahead of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.<\/p><\/div>\n

Many prominent Idaho Republicans are packing their bags and heading to Tampa for the 2012 Republican National Convention.<\/p>\n

The list of Idaho delegates includes Gov. C.L. “Butch”\u00a0 and Lori Otter, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna, and multimillionaire Romney backers Frank and Belinda VanderSloot.\u00a0 The full list is available here<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The Romney Campaign designated most of the delegates, says the Idaho Republican Party’s Trevor Thorpe, but three were selected by the party’s nominating committee and three more automatically attend based on their leadership positions.\u00a0 All pay their own costs of travel, Thorpe says.<\/p>\n

Among those selected by the nominating committee is 88-year-old Ruthie Johnson of Hayden Lake, Idaho, who attended her first convention in 1964, in San Francisco.\u00a0 She was simply a curious visitor then, but by 1968 she was an alternate delegate, and she has attended every Republican convention since.<\/p>\n

“I’ve just been interested in politics, and I wanted to know for myself what was happening, not just in bits and pieces on the news,” Johnson explains.\u00a0 And her enthusiasm hasn’t waned.\u00a0 She’ll catch her flight to Florida very early Saturday.\u00a0 “I’ll land in Tampa if the weather doesn’t beat me to it!” she says.<\/p>\n

Here’s the Idaho delegates’ official schedule of events:<\/p>\n

Monday 27 August<\/span>
\n9:30am\u00a0 AT&T sponsored breakfast-Del\/Alt – no charge
\n12:00 pickup for Business Meeting-Delegates\/Alternates\u00a0<\/em>
\n4:00\u00a0 pickup for first general session-Delegation\/guests<\/p>\n

Tuesday 28 August<\/span>
\n8:00\u00a0 60Plus breakfast with Pat Boone-no charge
\n1:00pm pick up for Service project
\n2:30pm return to hotel
\n5:00pm\u00a0 pickup for evening session
\n12:00am-2:00am \u00a0Nite Owl Reception-Delegation Hotel- no charge<\/p>\n

Wednesday 29 August<\/span>
\n9:00am\u00a0 Idaho Delegation Breakfast-Del\/Alt\/guests-our hotel-Paid by fee
\n3:00pm\u00a0\u00a0 Melaleuca Early Dinner for Del\/Alt\/guests-our hotel-no charge
\n5:00pm\u00a0\u00a0 Pickup for evening session, Session 7:30-11:00pm each night<\/p>\n

Thursday 30 August<\/span>
\n9:00am\u00a0 BNSF Railway Breakfast-Delegation Hotel-Del\/Alt\/guest-no charge
\n5:00pm\u00a0 pickup for the last evening session
\n7:00pm Delegation only<\/span><\/strong> photo in the convention arena .
\n7:30pm\u2014Last session begins<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many prominent Idaho Republicans are packing their bags and heading to Tampa for the 2012 Republican National Convention. The list of Idaho delegates includes Gov. C.L. “Butch”\u00a0 and Lori Otter, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna, and multimillionaire Romney backers Frank and Belinda VanderSloot.\u00a0 The full list is available here. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":10173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[138,27],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10159"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10193,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10159\/revisions\/10193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}