After initially saying that "the Georgia Republican Party’s events away from the Convention will be closed to the press," state GOP officials acknowledged a "communications glitch" in their media prep for the GOP convention and promised to allow access for reporters next week in Tampa.
"We may have fumbled it a bit," said Brian Keahl, the Executive Director of the Georgia Republican Party.
Keahl and I spoke by telephone this morning after my blog recounted how I couldn't even get a basic schedule of what Georgia delegates would be doing outside of the GOP convention next week.
All I wanted was to know when Georgia delegates were having breakfast each day, so I could try to swing by the hotel and interview a few people.
But with a large number of media requests for interviews, the Georgia GOP seemed to be playing defense to keep reporters from pestering state delegates with questions before the convention begins.
"It is not our intention to disallow access to our delegates as much as an attempt to respect their privacy leading up to the convention," Keahl said on my voice mail, even though I wasn't going to be interviewing any delegates in Tampa before Saturday at the earliest.
On Monday, the Georgia GOP sent out an email to reporters which said that any request for delegate interviews would have to be submitted via email to the party, with the following information request:
• Who are you requesting for an interview?
• What date and time (EDT)?
• What is the topic of this interview?
• What type of interview (recorded TV, live TV, newspaper, etc.)
• If not a telephone interview, what is the proposed location for your interview?
• Other pertinent information, if any.
As Keahl noted by phone, every state does things a bit differently. For example, the Florida delegation (in both parties) always has wide open meetings, which are often entertaining to attend.
And usually each morning of the convention, delegates from each state gather at their hotel for breakfast and then get to hear from a few noted speakers, all while everyone talks about what kind of fun they had the night before.
It's a relaxed atmosphere that is fun for reporters, because you can usually find some delegates to chat with about the day's events at the convention.
Finally after a few minutes of back and forth, Keahl guaranteed to me that reporters would have access to delegates at the hotel, and promised to get me some schedule information soon, along with a list of delegates by the end of the week.
What it sounded like was that the order had gone out to keep the media from swamping delegates right now, but that was interpreted by others inside the Georgia GOP to mean strict limits on reporters for the entire convention week.
"I think there was some kind of communication glitch here," said Keahl.
Even as Keahl and I were speaking by phone, details started to leak out from a few of the delegates, who sent me messages about where the delegation would be having lunch on this day or that day, who was going to speak and who was sponsoring the gathering.
More tips on the Georgia, Florida, Ohio & Oklahoma delegations would be appreciated, for both conventions.
On to Tampa. And then Charlotte.
