Las Vegas- In contrast to the debacle that greeted Clark County Democrats with their Feb. 23 convention, the Clark County GOP hosted a convention today that was long on organization and shows of Republican unity and decidedly short of drama.

With Ariz. Sen. John McCain already the presumptive Republican nominee, seemingly the only task for the Clark County Republicans who turned out in record numbers at the Orleans Hotel and Casino today was to get excited about him, a task made easier by the slew of senior Republican officials offering their full-throated, if begrudging, support.

"I'll be the first to say," said Congressman Dean Heller as he addressed the convention in the early afternoon, "that John McCain was not my first choice.  But he is my first choice today."

Gov. Jim Gibbons, who briefly took questions after speaking to the convention, spoke on a similar theme.

"No, I did not vote for [McCain]," said Gibbons, "but he is the most qualified individual that I can support based on his military background, his leadership ability, understanding of the United States and, most importantly, he's a westerner."

The over 3,300 delegates in attendance largely agreed and by the end of the convention blue McCain signs were waving frantically, even if there were some doubters remaining.

"I disagree with McCain on a number of things," said delegate Michael Lussem, 59, of Las Vegas, "especially immigration.  I disagree with him on his policy against First Amendment free speech with his McCain-Feingold bill.  He's really not come out and repudiated either one of those.  On the other hand, he's much more conservative than the Democrats."

Besides rallying around McCain, the convention largely served as an opportunity for Republican candidates and elected officials to meet with party activists and spread the word about their burgeoning campaigns.  State Sen. Bob Beers, whose district is high on Nevada Democrats' list of targets for a senate takeover, introduced Gibbons to the convention and afterward spoke with PolitickerNV.com about his likely opponent, Allison Copening.

"I suspect that she'll get some votes," said Beers.  "I will be campaigning as hard as I ever do.  Generally, in state legislative races, it comes down to just having met people and going door to door.  And that's been true for all five campaigns that I've ever been involved in."

Beers remains optimistic about Republicans' chances in the November election, particularly because of the ongoing and increasingly nasty Democratic primary.

"Democrats run a little bit more off of emotion than intellect compared to Republicans," said Beers.  "They are hard to forgive a primary and, consequently, half of the people who were motivated to get involved because of the presidential campaign-when the other guy wins-whether or not they'll show up at the ballot, we'll see."

Much of the credit for the successful and mostly drama-free convention belonged to Bernie Zadrowski, who became chairman of the Clark County Republican Party Jan. 15.

"We were prepared," said Zadrowski during a hastily arranged noon press conference.  "We've got three ballrooms.  We've had this in place for the last month and a half.  We were prepared for up to 3,700; we got 3,300."

Despite the high turnout, delegates volunteering to attend the state convention fell short of the 1,970 that Clark County is allotted.  According to Zadrowski, 895 delegates volunteered to attend the Reno convention in May, a number that was still more than twice the total attendance of the 2004 Clark County Republican Convention.