McCain Campaign Reaching Out to Religious Leaders
May 22, 2008
Two campaign aides for John McCain's tell The Brody File that outreach to the religious community is well underway with weekly meetings between McCain staffers and pro-family leaders. There are roughly ten people on the call from the Evangelical and social conservative world including prominent McCain backers Gary Bauer and former Senator Dan Coates. The focus of the weekly meeting is to gauge the temperature of the grassroots, keep a dialogue open and make sure they know that the McCain camp is listening to their concerns. One aide says the campaign is in "listening mode"
The campaign also sends out email alerts and correspondence a few times a week to national leaders in individual states. These are people who have professed their support and others who haven't come around quite yet. The feedback has been helpful to the McCain campaign. While some leaders may have concerns with McCain's stance on embryonic stem cell research or campaign finance reform, the bigger pushback and concern comes from those leaders who believe McCain has not really championed social conservative issues as much as he should. That seems to be something the McCain camp will have to deal with.
They also are holding "Issues briefings" prior to certain speeches McCain gives on topics important to social conservatives. For example, before McCain's big speech on judges last month, pro-family groups like the Family Research Council and Eagle Forum were briefed about where McCain stands on the issue. The McCain camp sees all of these efforts as an opportunity to "introduce" John McCain to social conservative leaders again and point out that he is with them on the issues they care deeply about.
In addition to all of this, Charlie Black, a senior advisor to McCain met with a few Evangelical leaders last week.
Look, here's the bottom line: The McCain campaign is gearing up for a true battle over Evangelicals this fall. They are NOT taking them for granted. They know they have work to do but what we are seeing here is a ramped up effort that is fully supported by the head guy, John McCain. The Hagee endorsement and subsequent retraction was not the campaign's best moment but the system they have in place now is starting to make headway.
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