Bush loyalist tapped to manage 2008 GOP convention
Maria Cino, a veteran Republican operative who last week left the No. 2 post at the U.S. Department of Transportation, will oversee the GOP’s planning for its 2008 national convention in the Twin Cities.
Maria Cino, a veteran Republican operative who last week left the No. 2 post at the U.S. Department of Transportation, will oversee the GOP’s planning for its 2008 national convention in the Twin Cities. Cino’s selection puts a longtime ally of President Bush in charge of producing the nominating convention for his possible successor.
Neither Cino nor Republican National Committee representatives returned repeated phone calls and e-mails about her new role. But Cino visited the Twin Cities two weeks ago to meet with local leaders, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and his convention point person Erin Dady said.
The Twin Cities were selected last year to host to the Sept. 1-4, 2008, convention. Democrats decided in January to hold their nominating convention in Denver.
Dady said Cino will lead planning of the convention program and be a key point of contact with the presidential campaigns. A local host committee and officials in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Bloomington are working on raising money and handling other logistical preparations.
Cino’s Republican Party connections are extensive.
She held the title of deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee and served as that body’s top political strategist during the 2004 election. In 2000, Cino was Bush’s national political director in the early stages of his first presidential campaign.
During Bush’s two terms, Cino has held various roles, including a brief stint as acting Department of Transportation secretary between the resignation of one agency leader and the hiring of the new boss.
As deputy secretary, Cino had significant influence over a department with a $61.1 billion budget and 60,000 employees.
Cino is a native of Buffalo, N.Y. and a graduate of St. John Fisher College in Rochester, N.Y.
Meanwhile, St. Paul leaders held the first of three public meetings Monday to field citizen questions.
Attendees peppered a panel of law enforcement and city organizers with questions about disruptions from the convention itself and the related protests.
Assistant St. Paul Police Chief Matt Bostrom assured people in the solidly Democratic city that their right to protest would be protected. He said the goal is to minimize arrests.
“There’s going to be people who come here who really want to get arrested,” Bostrom said.
For now, there hasn’t been a decision on how wide the security perimeter will be around the convention epicenter, the Xcel Energy Center.
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