SACRAMENTO -- As Republican party delegates arrived Friday intent on delivering an anti-tax message during their three-day convention here, incoming Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro said he is confident that Republican legislators will rebuff Gov. Jerry Brown's bid for a special election on tax extensions.

Del Beccaro, the former Contra Costa County GOP chief, is running unopposed to take the reins from outgoing chairman Ron Nehring amid inner-party rancor over the five Republican senators who have been negotiating with Brown.
Delegates are considering a resolution branding as "traitors" any Republican who signs onto a deal that allows a special election on taxes to go forward, though the issue may be moot since no deal is expected to be consummated before the convention ends Sunday.

"I don't want taxes on the ballot," Del Beccaro said in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency, the site of the convention, "But I don't think Jerry Brown is serious about reforms at all. So, I don't think they'll vote to put them on the ballot."

Del Beccaro, who was non-committal on the "traitor" resolution, said he has "no problem" with the so-called GOP 5 negotiating with Brown.

"That's the only way we'll be able to persuade them with our ideas about what truly needs to be done," he said. "I'm fine with it."

The five Republicans negotiating with Brown -- Sens. Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo; Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres; Tom Harman,

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R-Huntington Beach; Bill Emmerson, R-Hemet; and Tom Berryhill, R-Stockton -- successfully delayed any potential deal heading into the convention.

They reportedly wanted to avoid the kind of direct confrontations that embarrassed some of the six GOP legislators who voted for taxes before the 2009 GOP convention.