After 50 years of conventions, Sheboygan man finally a delegate
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Carl Toepel knows his way around Republican national conventions.
The retired school principal and alderman from Sheboygan has attended nine of them.
But the 2008 party conclave in St. Paul is his first as an actual delegate.
"As a 17-year-old, I was a doorkeeper at the 1956 convention that re-nominated Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon," recalled Toepel as he stood amid the Wisconsin delegation to the convention that will nominate John McCain for president and Sarah Palin for vice president.
At the 1960 convention four years later that nominated Richard Nixon for president, he was an official visitor.
Then at the 1964 Barry Goldwater convention, he was an assistant sergeant-at-arms.
In 1972, when President Nixon was re-nominated, he was a visitor once more.
In 1976, at the party's Gerald Ford confirmation, he was a volunteer.
In 1996, he was an alternate delegate supporting eventual nominee Bob Dole.
In 2000 and 2004, he was an alternate delegate supporting George W. Bush.
And now, finally, Toepel is a delegate for John McCain.
Was it worth the wait?
"Oh, yes!" says Toepel, who is excited about the McCain-Sarah Palin ticket and who hasn't minded at all that the convention schedule has been thrown out of whack because of concerns on the part of Republicans about partying too much as hurricanes are hitting Florida and the Gulf Coast.
"I feel, because many of my fellow citizens were hurting because of the hurricanes, that had to be our priority," he said.
But as the convention hit its stride Wednesday night, Toepel was in political heaven, listening to speeches and cheering along with fellow Republicans. "It's a boyhood dream," he says.
To celebrate, Toepel is handing out campaign pins promoting his candidates.
His two favorites?
An image of McCain in front of the "Little White Schoolhouse" in Ripon, where the Grand Old Party was founded in 1854, and a picture of the presidential nominee surrounded by bratwurst and the message: "Sheboygan, Wi., 'Brat City' Supports John McCain."
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Carl Toepel of Sheboygan has been attending Republican national conventions since 1956.
