PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island House Republican leader Robert Watson met Arizona Sen. John McCain on a somber October afternoon in 1999 at the State House.

That morning, the Ocean State had laid to rest beloved U.S. Sen. John H. Chafee, a McCain friend and GOP colleague.

After the high church Episcopal funeral at Grace Church in Providence, more than 50 senators gathered at the state capitol for a reception for mourners.

“Senator McCain walked past my desk in the House chamber, which was draped in black in honor of Senator Chafee, who had been a former House minority leader.

“We talked for a few minutes and he inquired as to whether I was on the Bush juggernaut,” recalled Watson, of East Greenwich, recently. “I told him I wasn’t and he invited me to New Hampshire over Veterans Day that year.”

McCain and Watson hit it off. McCain asked Watson if he would be chairman of his Rhode Island campaign in the 2000 presidential race. Watson agreed and worked diligently for McCain that year. Rhode Island was one of seven states won by McCain over then Texas-governor George W. Bush in the contest for the Republican presidential nomination.

“We won our state, but the 2000 convention in Philadelphia was bittersweet,” Watson says. “We were a McCain delegation at a Bush convention. Needless to say, we felt out of place.”

At the Republican National Convention that begins tomorrow in St. Paul, Minn., Watson and his counterparts in the McCain campaign will feel right at home.

“We Republicans will be united this year,” exults Watson, who will be chairman of the state’s GOP convention delegation. “We won’t have the distractions and divisiveness of the Democrats, and I just think it remains to be seen just how cohesive the Democrats are as they emerge from Denver.”

Republicans vow unity as they nominate McCain, 72, the oldest candidate ever to run at the top of a major party presidential ticket. McCain essentially wrapped up the nomination after his victory in New Hampshire’s leadoff primary in January. Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fought in primaries and caucuses all the way to June until Obama narrowly sealed the nod.

David Hathaway Sr., a lawyer from Exeter, is a delegate who supported Christian conservative Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor. “It was an easy shift to get behind John McCain,” says Hathaway. “He is a strong leader, and I know Governor Huckabee has a lot of respect for John McCain.

“Our economy is a mess, but I think the international situation will soon overtake the economy as the top issue,” said Hathaway. “It is incredibly important that we have someone with experience who can make clear decisions in dangerous times.”

While Watson has known McCain since 1999 and has campaigned with him often, J. William Middendorf, of Little Compton, at 83 the oldest Rhode Island delegate, goes back further with the presumptive Republican nominee.

Middendorf was secretary of the Navy during Ronald Reagan’s administration in the 1980s. McCain was the Navy’s legislative liaison with the U.S. Senate. “John McCain used to call me boss,” recalls Middendorf.

“I worked with John every day trying to get our legislation passed on the Hill,” said Middendorf.

For the past decade, McCain has been chairman of the International Republican Institute, a democracy-building organization that operates around the world. Middendorf is treasurer of the organization.

“John is phenomenally knowledgeable about foreign policy,” says Middendorf. “He is a great guy. Now I call him boss.”

Middendorf has attended GOP conventions since 1964, when he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention at the Cow Palace in San Francisco that nominated for president another Arizona senator, Barry Goldwater.

Always a Republican, Middendorf was Goldwater’s campaign-finance chairman in the 1964 landslide won by Democrat Lyndon Johnson.

“Barry Goldwater was a man of conviction and a straight shooter,” says Middendorf, who over the years has been a GOP convention delegate from three different states: Virginia, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

A Harvard University graduate, Middendorf crafted a distinguished career as a banker, diplomat, composer, and Navy secretary. In his 80s, he wrote a well-received memoir of the Goldwater campaign, which planted the seeds for the conservative takeover of the Republican Party.

“I think John McCain is going to make a great president,” said Middendorf. “I think the convention will unite behind him.”

Rhode Island’s state GOP chairman, Giovanni Cicione, a Barrington lawyer, says he has heard discordant notes from the camp of Ron Paul, a libertarian and U.S. representative from Texas, who has an unorthodox mix of views, including banning abortion and opposition to the Iraq war.

“There may be some news from the Ron Paul people,” said Cicione. “But I don’t think it will rise to anything near the level of what we saw with Clinton and Obama.

“There is always debate, the Republican Party is a broad group,” said Cicione. “The essential difference is between a personal fight like the Democrats have and a debate over policy, which is the Republican way,” said Cicione.

Rhode Island is not usually a state friendly to Republican presidential candidates. The last time the state voted Republican in a presidential contest was in 1984, when Reagan won a 49-state sweep and narrowly carried Rhode Island. Democratic nominee Walter Mondale took only Minnesota, his home state.

But Cicione sees some opportunity this year because of the Obama-Clinton split in the March 4 Democratic presidential primary. The contest was won decisively by Clinton, and some of her supporters were angry when Obama eventually captured the nomination.

“There may be some opportunities in Rhode Island this year,” said Cicione.

Rep. Carol Mumford, R-Scituate, recently won election as the GOP’s national committeewoman from Rhode Island. She succeeded the late Eileen Slocum, of Newport, who for many years was the state party’s grande dame.

“It is a wonderful thrill to be attending the convention,” said Mumford. “I think we are going to have a level of confidence and cohesiveness that is different from what we have seen at the Democratic convention. I saw Hillary Clinton’s speech and I didn’t think that was a unity speech.”

Governor Carcieri is leaving for St. Paul on Tuesday. Carcieri is hosting a breakfast for the Rhode Island delegation and also plans to speak to the Massachusetts delegation, says Amy Kempe, the governor’s spokeswoman.

Carcieri is also likely to hold interviews with members of the national media who will converge on the Twin Cities. The governor is slated to appear on Neil Cavuto’s show on Fox News and may also appear on The O’Reilly Factor, Kempe says. In addition, Carcieri will probably do interviews with reporters from Channel 10 and the New England News Network, which are sending staff to the Republican convention.

It has become a cliché to say that conventions are not what they used to be. Once, the national political conventions of both major parties were events of great drama where real decisions — including deciding on the party standard bearer — would be made.

Since the 1980s, however, the decisions on nominees have been made by voters in primaries and caucuses. This year, the GOP nomination battle was over after the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

The last time there was any preconvention drama concerning who the eventual candidate would be was in 1976, when Reagan and then-President Gerald Ford took their contest to the floor of the Republican National Convention. Ford won the GOP nomination, but lost the election to then-Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter.

“These events are not nearly as important as they used to be,” says John Holmes Jr., of Bristol, the former Republican state chairman. “Nowadays these things are all about trying to rally the American voters’ attention around the parties’ respective candidates and how to keep the Democrat nominee and the Republican nominee in the spotlight.”

GOP DELEGATES

Mayor Scott Avedisian of Warwick

Virginia Butterworth of Tiverton

Christine Callahan of Middletown

Mark Chapin of Cumberland

Giovanni Cicione of Barrington

Steve Coaty of Newport

Andrea Coletta of Providence

Sandra Goddard of Little Compton

Nicholas Gorham of Coventry

Brad Gorham of Foster

Kristine Greene of West Greenwich

David Hathaway Sr. of Exeter

Matthew Hopkins of Westerly

Randy Jackvony of Cranston

Steve Kass of Scituate

Robert Manning of Charlestown

Dennis Michaud of Providence

Carol Mumford of Hope

Susan Story of Barrington

Robert Watson of East Greenwich

ALTERNATES

Kristen Bond of Bristol

Suzanne O. Carcieri of East Greenwich

Caswell Cooke Jr. of Westerly

Steven Frias of Cranston

Joseph Goddard of Little Compton

Michelle Goddard of Cranston

Henry Kamradt of Hopkinton

Sandra Knowles of Wickford

J. William Middendorf II of Little Compton

Carol Nolan of Warwick

Paula Ouellette of Tiverton

Raymond Ouellette of Tiverton

James Patti of East Greenwich

Holly Salerno of North Scituate

Jonathan Scott of Providence

Christopher Stanley of Warren

Lammis Vargas of Pawtucket

smackay@projo.com