Hastings will skip GOP convention

Like a host of high-profile Republicans nationwide, U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Pasco, won't attend next week's Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.

The congressman, who also skipped the 2004 convention, will be working that week, his spokesman Will Marlow said in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C.

"He just made the decision not to go," Marlow said. "He's going to be doing his job as a congressman."

Hastings is in good company. A laundry list of top Republicans are not planning to attend the convention, which kicks off Monday. Washington gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi said weeks ago he wouldn't attend. And at least eight U.S. senators will skip the event.

Several of them, like Hastings, are running for re-election, which has led Democrats to question whether their absence is an attempt to distance themselves from an ailing GOP brand and President Bush's low approval ratings.

That's not the case with Hastings, Marlow said. Results from the Aug. 19 primary suggest that, in Central Washington at least, the Republican brand remains strong.

He has made numerous public appearances in the past month in the 4th congressional district and last week issued a statement thanking supporters for their votes in the primary.

"We're now headed toward November, and I intend to run as hard as ever," he said in the statement.

As of Wednesday, the Pasco congressman had drawn 62 percent of the primary ballots. His Democratic opponent in the general election, attorney George Fearing of Kennewick, drew 33 percent. Republican Gordon Allen Pross drew 5 percent.

While Republican delegates from Washington state and other party activists will soon gather in St. Paul, "He'll be working that week," Marlow said. "That's really what it comes down to."

Hastings' schedule for next week has not been released.

He has attended several Republican national conventions in the past, starting with 1976 when he was a delegate for then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan. He was on committees that drafted the Republican platform at the 1984 and 2000 conventions, and he attended the 1996 convention. He did not attend in 1980, 1988, 1992 or 2004.

Hastings threw his support behind this year's presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona the day after the Super Tuesday primaries all but guaranteed McCain victory.

* Pat Muir can be reached at 577-7693, or at pmuir@yakimaherald.com.