Sen. John McCain

Sen. John McCain, working to cement his position as frontrunner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, continues to lavish cash on GOP causes around the country through his Straight Talk America political action committee, but a new survey shows the Arizonan has to play catch-up in Iowa.
Mr. McCain’s PAC raised more than $410,000 in July and spent more than $900,000, much of it on donations to Republican causes around the country. The PAC handed out over $120,000 in campaign contributions in July, donations designed to solidify support for Mr. McCain’s expected White House bid.
That strategy is already paying off. During a recent trip to South Carolina, an early primary state Mr. McCain has visited several times, he picked up the endorsement of Major General Stan Spears, the state’s adjutant general and a prominent figure in the veterans’ community in South Carolina.
In 2000, Gen. Spears was instrumental in helping then-Texas Governor George W. Bush siphon veterans away from Mr. McCain, a Vietnam veteran. This time around, it will be Mr. McCain who benefits from Gen. Spears’ reputation and influence to make inroads to the state’s veterans.
The endorsement is another step toward moderating Mr. McCain’s maverick image, according to Winthrop University professor Scott Huffmon. Securing Gen. Spears’ support “is about solidifying general party support,” he says. Mr. McCain “is showing he is going to work with and within the South Carolina Republican Party,” as opposed to remaining the intentional outsider, as he did in 2000.
Gen. Spears is not the only former Bush supporter Mr. McCain has wooed in recent weeks. The Arizona senator has spent considerable effort recruiting former Bush aides, including media consultant Mark McKinnon, former White House communications director Nicolle Wallace and other top-level operatives around the nation.
Other hopefuls
Other Republican White House hopefuls, though, are making similar efforts. Sens. George Allen, R-Va., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan., Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee have all secured support from former Bush administration and campaign officials as well.
Top elected officials throughout the country aren’t shy about picking sides either. Straight Talk America recently announced the additions of several top advisers and co-chairs, including GOP strategist Lance Tarrance, a prominent Washington-based pollster, and Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore.
Mr. Smith’s endorsement carries an added blow for Mr. Romney, as Mr. Smith became the second major politician of the Mormon faith to back Mr. McCain, after Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. Mr. Romney is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and many believed that his support within the community would be a key to his bid.
Utah-based pollster Dan Jones says the endorsements are not only “a blow” to Mr. Romney, but a major help to Mr. McCain. “Republicans who are LDS [Latter-Day Saints] may take a look at Mr. McCain instead of automatically voting for Mr. Romney,” he said.
While top staff and prominent endorsers are key to any White House campaign, the ability to fundraise remains paramount. The Bush campaign’s list of major donors — known as “pioneers” or “rangers,” depending on the amount of money they helped raise — is perhaps the most coveted in Republican politics, and the race to earn these donors’ support is well under way.
The Washington Post reported recently that Mr. Romney has thus far attracted the greatest number of former Bush high donors, as 14 have shown up in his corner. Mr. McCain has attracted eleven such donors, while Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., counts the support of seven.
In addition to fundraising, Mr. McCain’s travel schedule is just as hectic. Since the beginning of July, Mr. McCain has spent time in ten states, not counting Arizona, campaigning for Republican candidates. Since last weekend, Mr. McCain has spent two days in Ohio campaigning for Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents in the country, and two days in Florida on behalf of Republican Attorney General Charlie Crist, a leading candidate for governor.
Those trips came on the heels of three days in Iowa and two more each in South Carolina and Pennsylvania. Mr. McCain has also earned valuable face time on national television shows, including ABC’s “This Week,” Comedy Central’s “Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and NBC’s “Tonight Show.”
While the senator’s efforts are translating into fundraising, staffing and institutional victories, the nomination is far from locked up, and Mr. McCain may find himself facing a major hurtle in Iowa, home of the Republicans’ first nominating caucus. Mr. McCain placed first in an informal straw poll conducted by WHO-TV at the Iowa State Fair last week, but a new, scientific poll shows Mr. McCain trailing former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani among the state’s likely caucus-goers.
The poll, conducted by Davenport, Iowa-based Victory Enterprises, showed Mr. Giuliani earning the support of 30 percent of respondents, easily outpacing the 17 percent who said they’d back Mr. McCain. The two frontrunners easily best other potential candidates, none of whom managed more than Mr. Frist’s 6.5 percent. Nearly 29 percent of respondents remain undecided. The poll, conducted Aug. 14-15, carried a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent.
The poll also shows Mr. McCain sporting the highest unfavorable rating of any Republican candidate, with nearly a quarter of likely caucus-goers viewing him in a negative light. “His frankness and his independent style create a situation in which a lot of people like him and some people don’t,” says Steve Grubbs, president of Victory Enterprises.
But for those who had worried that Mr. McCain’s decision to skip the Iowa caucuses in 2000 would haunt him in 2008, Mr. Grubbs sees a silver lining in the poll. “Iowans are willing to let bygones be bygones,” he says, pointing to the significant number of Iowa Republicans supporting the senator already.
The poll, says Mr. Grubbs, is actually good news for Mr. McCain. “If [Mr. Giuliani] doesn’t get in the race, [Mr. McCain is] pretty much the front-runner, which is pretty good for a state he hasn’t campaigned in a lot.”