MARK WAITE / PVT Fely Quitevis poses in her office at Precious Properties with framed photographs of leading Republican Party officials. Advertisement

Two faces from Pahrump will be among the sea of 2,380 delegates and 2,227 alternate delegates in the audience attending the Republican National Convention Sept. 1-4 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.

Fely Quitevis, the chairman of the Nye County Republican Party since May 2007, and Roy Roseberry will be traveling to St. Paul as delegates.

Quitevis said 34 delegates and 31 alternates from Nevada will be attending the convention.

The wall at Quitevis' office, Precious Properties, is adorned with framed photographs of her with leading Republican Party officials like President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Gov. Jim Gibbons, U.S. Sen. John Ensign and virtually every president of her native Philippines.

During a previous inauguration celebration, Quitevis attended a tea with First Lady Laura Bush in Washington, D.C.

Still, she's very excited about this trip.

"I was watching the Democratic Convention in Denver at night, and my God, that's the same thing," Quitevis said. "I'm really excited, never in my mind did I think a poor girl from a little village in the Philippines would be going to the national convention."

Quitevis emigrated to the U.S. from the Philippines Oct. 4, 1984, where her father ran a construction business.

She plans to advocate for immigration reform, which was an issue Republican presidential nominee-to-be, U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., supported early in the campaign.

Quitevis said the U.S. should allow badly-needed professionals, like doctors, nurses and teachers, many of them from the Philippines, to emigrate to the U.S.

"We have a lot of Filipino nurses working in Iran, Iraq, all those Moslem countries. If we would be able to get those nurses, allow them to work in the U.S., it would help us close up the shortage and at the same time it would hurt those Arab nations," Quitevis said.

The owner of a real estate company, Quitevis said she liked McCain's plan to help solve the foreclosure problem by giving money directly to the homeowners instead of the plan passed by Congress to help the Federal Housing Administration and the giant Fannie Mae mortgage company.

Quitevis said she supported former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney during the Republican primary last January, that name is being floated prominently now as a vice-presidential running mate for McCain.

The Republican National Convention follows the state convention in Reno and the county convention in Beatty.

Asked why she was chosen to attend the national convention, Quitevis said, "I worked hard as chairman for Nye County. I really, really worked hard."

Quitevis boasted the number of registered Republicans in Nye County is now over 10,000. In 2004 there were 7,252.

Quitevis will be working with the media at the convention. Quitevis said her chairmanship of the Nye County party since May 2007 has helped her overcome her fear of public speaking with her Filipino accent.

"I'm honored to represent Pahrump and rural Nevada in St. Paul. This is the first time I've ever had an opportunity to do anything like that. It's very nice," Roseberry said while driving through Colorado Thursday headed to Minnesota.

Until 2004, Roseberry worked for the Federal Highway Administration in Washington, D.C., and was unable to get involved politically as a federal employee. He moved to Pahrump a year ago from Reno.

"I have been a McCain supporter since before the caucus in January. I'm looking forward to helping him secure the nomination and the eventual election," Roseberry said.