Republicans can be hard to locate in Rhode Island, but they sure are interesting to talk with.

I found a posse of them last week at a fundraiser for House Minority Leader Bob Watson, John McCain’s main man in Rhode Island. This was at the Post Office Café in East Greenwich, Watson’s home town. The fare included pizza and smoked salmon on toast.

When I asked Watson why he’s so confident that McCain will win in November, he replied, “The fact that the press has been, for several months now, trying to convince the public that Barack Obama’s the biggest phenomenon to hit the American political scene in our lifetime, and yet it’s a dead heat notwithstanding his world tour a month ago … should tell you something.”

As for whom he’d like McCain to tap for vice president, Watson spoke highly of former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge. But wait: Ridge supports abortion rights. “That shouldn’t be a drop dead litmus test,” Watson said, and I agree, but, hey, we’re talking about a GOP convention.

I wouldn’t call the November race a dead heat — Obama usually runs slightly ahead — but Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian said he is “amazed” that McCain is doing as well as he is in view of George Bush’s unpopularity. Avedisian said many voters like McCain’s maverick image and, even if they disagree with him, admire his steadfast support for the Iraq war and surge.

But Avedisian decried the recent McCain spot that featured Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. The mayor said it “ “trivializes” the election. “It’s not the type of ad that I think is fitting for a Republican candidate for president.”

Former House Minority Leader Brad Gorham said he’s looking forward to being a delegate at the convention in St. Paul — he went to the one in Dallas in 1984 — because it’s a thrill not to feel like an outsider. “If you live and work in Rhode Island politics, you’d think it’s hopeless to be a Republican … But if you get out in the Midwest and West and talk to the people from the rest of the country, you begin to see there are other people who think like you; there are more conservatives.”

By the way, regarding Republicans being so scarce here: Westerly’s Nancy Richmond was at the Watson event. A former councilwoman and former GOP town chairman, she is running for the House against veteran Democratic Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy. Richmond told me Rhode Island needs “a democracy,” and “The governor’s got to have as many Republicans as he can to sustain a veto; otherwise the state’s going down the tube.”

Governor Carcieri was there.

And so was the delightful Martha Stamp. You may know her as “Martha from Wakefield” on the talk shows. I know her from past conventions, where she’d sport over-the-top hats. At Watson’s party, she wore a more subdued dark blue brimmed number with red, white and blue adornment, including artificial roses, tulips and something that looked vaguely like blueberries, but don’t hold me to it. She intends to wear the hat when she takes in the convention in St. Paul.

What’s the kick at these conclaves? Stamp revels in all-Republican crowds. “All of the high rollers are there and everybody who’s anybody is there, and it makes me feel just absolutely wonderful.”

But wait, there’s more. At the 2004 convention in New York, I told Stamp about talk show alley, from where broadcast hosts from around the country were doing their programs.

“I loved it,” says Stamp. In fact, “I stayed there for almost two half days.”

M. Charles Bakst is The Journal’s political columnist.

mbakst@projo.com