RNC Midterm Convention co-chairman on upcoming convention and rising gas prices

(CBS, KYMA) - Ray Washburne, the co-chairman of the RNC Midterm Convention, spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the upcoming convention.

According to Brennan, there are reports that lawmakers are being asked to pay $25,000 to attend what is the first ever Republican midterm convention, happening later this week in Dallas.

This prompted her to ask Washburne if lawmakers have to pay to attend and participate in the convention, to which he said:

"The whole attendance and selling the packages is all an RNC thing. I'm chairman of the host committee that's putting the convention on, so I'm not sure exactly in all the different packages they have. But what I do know is we have 20,000 people attending all 50 states, every territory, and people have started arriving this weekend. And there's a high degree of energy here in Dallas for the convention, so we're very excited."

Brennan followed up by asking Washburne if he knows how many lawmakers are attending, as well as what the money being raised will do for those who attend, and Washburne said:

"Obviously, with it's going to be a great networking thing for the candidates to come down. There are going to be a lot of donors here and high-profile people, not only in the administration but in the donor community. So their events stacked every single day. So it's very advantageous for them to come, even if it's just for a day, just to meet and network in. So we have a high degree of candidates coming, we pretty much have every race represented here, except for a couple that couldn't break away."

During the interview, Brennan and Washburne talked about the rising gas prices, with Brennan asking Washburne, who is also the chairman of Sunoco, if they are changing their behavior based on the fact gas prices are more than 20% higher than last Labor Day, and he said:

"You know it's interesting...Right now, we've passed peak demand for the summer, and so going into the fall, the refineries are turning more out. It's very interesting. The refineries are running at 98% right now, and so it's an energy versus the 1970s and the malaise of the Carter administration when we had lines around the block. You have no issue at all finding any gas station to drive into and fill your car up. There are no lines. There's been no demand destruction really at all that we've seen this year, people are filling their cars up and they're still driving. Is it painful? Yes, it is more expensive. But you know, as inflation adjusted to what it was in the 1970s, when it was typically around 5% of someone's paycheck, today it's less than 2%. So it is more expensive because you see the signs in front of everyone, but companies like Costco, Buc-ees, the big retailers-they've really done a great job on keeping a lid on prices to where they could be. They could be much higher, but they're not."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Washburne, click here.