11.   Both teams are gearing up for the campaign now, with months to go until the party conventions.

12.   But a few polls taken before the party conventions suggested that Bush had a chance of victory in both states.

13.   But at a party convention last year, more militant members won a ticket with two former combatants, Guardado and Nidia Diaz.

14.   But he left standing the invitation to all candidates to address the party convention.

15.   But none of the Founding Fathers ever went to a party convention.

16.   But she was quickly eliminated from the field at the party convention.

17.   But there has been little campaigning in the state by other candidates since Gramm won a straw vote overwhelmingly at a party convention in Baton Rouge last January.

18.   But those gushy expressions of state pride may not command the same level of attention this year as they have at previous party conventions.

19.   But to party activists, the folks who attend party conventions, the platform is their Holy Grail.

20.   But, there really is nothing less democratic, small d, than a party convention these days.