Friends of the powerful railroad lobby responded with vigor during the convention sessions and in the state's major newspapers.

The mailing will also include a letter from Mr. Verney explaining the convention sessions.

Among the topics scheduled to be discussed in the closed convention sessions on Sunday: how to set up an independent candidacy.

Each side had examples to prove its points, as a spirited convention session on the issue showed.

"We have told the L.A.P.D. that we can start the convention sessions late if we have to," one senior planner said.

Between the convention sessions, party members will cast nominating votes by mail, fax, phone and computer.

A board meeting is held in the spring and the annual convention session is held at a major venue beginning on the second Sunday of August.

Did you participate, even by proxy, in the last-minute closed-door convention sessions in which deals were made before the final ballot?

One convention session turned into a beauty contest in which the three men, ever so modestly, strutted their stuff in five-minute speeches.

He once called a party aide uninformed when the aide suggested that the city could close streets during convention sessions, which is, in fact, exactly what will come to pass.