As much as Don Murphy loves the beach, a scheduled trip to Ocean City on Aug. 21 scarcely accounted for his unbridled glee the previous day.

The Catonsville resident, former state legislator and self-described political junkie said he was looking forward instead to next week's 2008 Republican National Convention.

"It is the Super Bowl for political junkies," he said of the event Sept. 1-4 in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Murphy, 48, will serve as chairman of Maryland's 37-member delegation to the convention, during which the party's candidate for the Nov. 4 presidential election is nominated and the party's campaign platform is adopted.

About 2,380 convention delegates and almost that many alternates, plus an untold number of convention staff, guests and news media representatives, will turn out for the event hosted by the Xcel Energy Center arena.

In a turn of events Murphy said he considers remarkable, the only Catonsville residents among the regular delegates and their alternates all live on Holmehurst Avenue.

Two live with him.

Murphy's wife, Gloria, was among the 10 alternates for the at-large delegation chosen by the state's central committee.

His 19-year-old daughter, Kendall, and his neighbor, John Hencken, are among the 24 alternates, three from each congressional district, elected in the Feb. 12 primary.

Hencken credits Don Murphy with recruiting him in as an alternate.

The 27-year-old building contractor said he registered as a Republican at age 18 and has supported Sen. John McCain, the party's presumptive presidential nominee, since 2000.

He said he has never attended a political convention.

The prospect of next week's event excites him and his wife, Melissa, who will join him as a guest, he said.

Neither expects to meet the party's presidential nominee or shake his hand.

"But who knows?" Hencken said.

Murphy said he has supported McCain "since day one."

He said he campaigned for the Arizona senator during the 2000 presidential primary, which was won by George Bush, the eventual winner of the general election.

McCain did not run in the 2004 election, which also went to Bush.

"There is no bigger cheerleader for John McCain in this state than me," Murphy said, noting that most Republican elected officials in Maryland supported Bush eight years ago.

Murphy said he campaigned this year for McCain in Maryland as well as Florida, Michigan and New Hampshire.

A veteran of two consecutive terms in the Maryland House of Delegates, where he represented District 12A that includes Catonsville, Arbutus and part of Howard County, Murphy jokes of being a "recovering" political junkie.

When Maryland redrew its congressional and legislative districts in 2002 to reflect the 2000 census, the results bumped his Holmehurst Avenue residence from 12A into 10.

Rather than move his family or try to campaign in District 10, he said he chose not to run for re-election that year.

Nevertheless, the Baltimore native has remained active in state Republican politics and was elected chairman of the party's Baltimore County Central Committee in 2002.

Even Murphy's career as a partner in the "government relations" firm Genn & Murphy involves politics.

"Some would call it lobbying," he said of the firm's "issue advocacy" activities.

A delegate to the 2000 Republican National Convention, held in Philadelphia, Murphy attended as a guest when New York hosted the convention in 2004.

This year, he is among the 24 Republican convention delegates elected from Maryland during the Feb. 12 state primary.

At the Republican State Central Committee convention in May, the committee chose 10 people to serve as at-large delegates, bringing the delegate count to 34.

The state central committee chairman and Maryland's two Republican National Committee members also will serve as delegates, making the total 37. In addition, 34 people will serve as alternates.

Although many in the delegation supported McCain's various Republican opponents in the primary, they are unified in supporting him now, Murphy said.

McCain won the Maryland Republican primary with more than 54 percent of the vote, followed by Mike Huckabee with about 28 percent.

Laughing, Murphy declined to guess at McCain's choice for the vice-presidential nomination.

"If I were capable of telling you that with any certainty, I would be somewhere else," he said Aug. 19.

"With all due respect, I would be calling you on the phone."

Reluctant to predict the convention's main campaign issue, Murphy cited foreign policy, energy policy and the overall economy as likely contenders.

"We need to think about what gas prices will be when my kids are my age," he said. "We need to tackle that."

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