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MESA — The goal of Saturday's Republican state party convention here was easier said than done: Leave nothing to chance.

And to get a sense of how much work Republican officials put into making sure that the process of picking delegates for the GOP's September national convention went by devoid of any predictability, you just needed to take a peek backstage at the stacks of green sheets ready to be handed out — instructing the party loyalty how to vote.

The process started months ago, as supporters of Sen. John McCain sought to squash any possibility that his most vocal conservative critics would make it to St. Paul, Minn., late this summer and embarrass the home-state senator in his quest for the presidency.

You'd think that all would have been taken care of in the Feb. 5 Arizona primary, when McCain won the state's popular vote, and in the process, Arizona's 53 pledged delegates.

But the formal process for picking those 53 people, which unfolded at the Mesa Convention Center, is more complicated — particularly because the delegates aren't legally bound to vote for McCain.

"This is John McCain's home state, and in our opinion it's crucial we have a united delegation that's going to be enthusiastic for John McCain, and we don't want people who are going to be acting up and embarrassing him," said Tucsonan Mike Hellon, who led the delegate recruitment process. "The issue here is that Democrats have the potential to have a very fractious convention (in August in Denver). We don't want to give it back to them."

So those green sheets — a culmination of months of negotiations between McCain aides and state party Chairman Randy Pullen — were circulated. And despite some sore feelings from Ron Paul supporters, the mutually agreed-on delegates were voted in by 900-some party activists.

Included in the list are Southern Arizona names: Hellon, Tucson attorney John Munger and former Pima County party Executive Director Linda White. State Rep. Jonathan Paton will serve as an alternative delegate in case one of those people can't attend.

"There were some people (Pullen) wanted to go that we simply would not accept," Hellon said. "And frankly, there were some people we wanted — loyal McCain people — that the party simply wouldn't accept. So it was a give and take."

Part of the concern centered on McCain's unpopularity in circles on the hard right, but more recently, the anxiety turned to libertarian-minded Paul supporters who were able to engineer a near upset at the Nevada GOP convention last month.

That effort was led by Jeff Greenspan, Southwest director for Paul and a Phoenix resident who was present Saturday circulating his own slate of delegate candidates. But here the move fell short.

"I'd say there's a little manipulation when the state says, 'Here are the McCain people that you should look for,' " Greenspan said. "It's not a coronation, because we don't live in England."

But Hellon and others denied that, and said the attendees ultimately were in the position to elect whom they wanted. "This is political process," Hellon said. "We didn't hold a gun to anyone's head."

And Pullen, who had been criticized early in his tenure for feeding a tense relationship with McCain, said Saturday that the party had clearly united behind McCain. On that note, he sought to turn the dialogue toward the race ahead, calling the Democratic contest the "primary that just keeps giving."

"The number of people who don't like John McCain's politics is very small, compared to the number of people in the Democratic Party who do not like Sen. Obama or Clinton's politics," he said. "I'm feeling pretty good, relative to what's happening on the other side."