MCCain to get official welcome

Organizers of the Republican National Convention will stage a welcome rally for presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain next Wednesday, the day he becomes the party's official nominee.

Doors for the rally will open at 11 a.m. at Peavey Plaza in downtown Minneapolis.

Convention organizers said tickets will be distributed to delegates Saturday. They did not immediately say whether the event will be open to the general public.

When the Republican convention opens Monday night, its prime-time lineup could be missing one of its biggest draws: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is vowing to remain in California if legislators fail to reach agreement on a state budget, now two months overdue.

"I am honored to be asked to speak at the convention ...[but] the state of California and the budget is the most important thing," Schwarzenegger said. "So that if I don't have a budget, I cannot speak at the convention."

A budget deal by showtime seems unlikely at this point, potentially costing Schwarzenegger a national platform and John McCain a high-profile supporter who has been popular with the kind of independent voter McCain hopes to attract.

Organizers of the convention still hope Schwarzenegger will show. Because his speech is scheduled for the Labor Day holiday, he could fly in and out on his private jet without missing any state business.

Cynthia McKinney, Green Party presidential candidate, will be a speaker at a rally at Mears Park in St. Paul at 4 p.m. Tuesday, just before the Poor People's March is to begin.

McKinney and her vice presidential running mate, Rosa Clemente, will also serve as "truth commissioners" at a public meeting at 7 p.m. Monday in St. Paul.

The meeting, at Christ Lutheran Church on Capitol Hill, 105 W. University Av., will include testimony of poor residents from Minnesota and across the country. A similar meeting, not including Mc- Kinney and Clemente, will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Sabathani Community Center in Minneapolis, 310 E. 38th St.

Both the march and the meetings on poverty are sponsored by the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign.

The Poor People's March on Tuesday will wind up across the street from the Xcel Energy Center, where the convention will take place. Peter Cooper, press coordinator for the group, said Wednesday that some demonstrators will try to scale barricades and fences and attempt to sit down in front of the doors of the Xcel to engage in civil disobedience.

Former Georgia U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party's nominee, will appear with Paul at a picnic Monday sponsored by Minnesota for Limited Government. The picnic will be held at 2 p.m. at Langford Park in St. Paul.

The joint appearance by Barr and Paul, a Texas congressman and onetime Libertarian candidate himself, does not amount to an endorsement by Paul, a campaign spokeswoman said.

Paul's forces plan a three-day "Rally for the Republic" that will climax Tuesday with a 10-hour extravaganza at Target Center in Minneapolis. Among the speakers will be former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura.