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Florida Delegation's Seating Sparks Pointed Debate

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By BILLY HOUSE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 2, 2008

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Some viewers of the scaled-down Republican National Convention might be asking themselves, "What's the point?" Florida's delegation leaders Monday were trying to answer, "Who's the point?"

That's because Florida's chairs on the Xcel Energy Center convention floor are set up in the shape of a slice of pie, with the front being a single chair just a few feet from the podium.

Republicans from other states don't have to wrestle with this dilemma because their chairs are arranged in squares or rectangles.

Should this sure-to-be-seen-on-TV seat go to the state chairman? Should it go to the lieutenant governor? The attorney general?

There was no quick answer early in the day from state GOP Chairman Jim Greer.

But by afternoon, just before the delegates were to take their seats for the first time, Greer had decided that the coveted point chair should belong to retired Col. George E. "Bud" Day.

Day is a Florida delegate and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient who was Sen. John McCain's cellmate in the Hanoi Hilton and remains the senator's friend.

Problem was, Day wanted to sit with his wife, Doris, an alternate delegate. And there is no room at the point for two people.

Greer then decided that one of the few black delegates, Adeniyi Aderibigbe of Lafayette County, should have the honor.

As Greer explained it, Aderibigbe had been very active and supportive regarding the party's voter outreach activities.

Problem was, Aderibigbe was nowhere in sight as the convention's first-day proceedings were soon gaveled in.

With photographers snapping away at the Florida delegates - in part because of the gaudy tropical shirts they were wearing - the empty chair at the head of the delegation looked, well, bad.

That's when another delegate, Mildred Fernandez, an Orange County commissioner, took matters into her own hands and filled the void.

Fernandez didn't seem to mind all the attention she got from photographers and camera operators, either. Far from it.

"I'm a county commissioner, after all," she kidded, smiling for yet another photograph.

But Fernandez's hold on the point chair may be tenuous. No decision has been made on who will have it today.

Reporter Billy House can be reached at (202) 662-7673 or bhouse@tampatrib.com.

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