Republican speaks at wrong convention

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MUSCATINE, Iowa, March 14 (UPI) -- An Iowa Republican running for Congress said he arrived early for an event and accidentally ended up addressing a group of Democrats.

Dan Dolan of Muscatine said he and a staffer arrived early Saturday for the Republican convention at the Monroe County Courthouse in Albia, The Quad City Times reported Wednesday.

"My staffer runs up and says, 'Hey, Dan Dolan is here. Can he speak?' So they stopped everything, and I get up there and give my speech," Dolan said. "I get done, a guy raises his hand and says, 'I think you want to talk to the Republicans.'"

"It was a crazy day," Dolan said. "We had scheduled 10 speaking engagements through the district."

"I'm not sure how many votes I won in the room that day," he said. "It was one of those silly things, but I think everybody was very, very good about it."

Monroe County Supervisor Denny Ryan said the mix-up is easy to understand, as the Democratic convention began at 11 a.m. and the Republican convention began in the same building at 1 p.m.

"Nobody asked enough questions before he started speaking," Ryan said. "It finally got to the point in the speech where one of the people said, 'Are you sure you're at the right convention?'"