Ralph Becker was once a GOP convention page

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

>Like almost all of the Utahns in Charlotte, this is Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker's first Democratic Convention. But it isn't his first appearance at a national political convention.

In 1968 he worked as a page at the Republican gathering in Miami, which saw Richard Nixon best Nelson Rockefeller for the party's nomination.

Becker's father, Ralph Becker Sr., was an active Rockefeller Republican in New York and he got his then 16-year-old son the job where he ran errands for party big wigs. The mayor says at the time he "just assumed" he was a Republican.

"I was much more interested in sports and girls than in politics," he said.

Becker ran for, but did not win, a delegate spot for the Democratic Convention in 2008. As the most visible member of Utah's delegation this go around, the mayor is excited, saying: "More than anything, I'm just looking forward to the experience."

— Matt Canham

Twitter: @mattcanham