Sen. John McCain’s slow fundraising numbers have left critics wondering if his Straight Talk Express is losing steam early on.

But, with nearly a year before the 2008 N.H. primary, Monadnock Region supporters believe that McCain’s presidential campaign is just getting ready to leave the station.

Campaign officials reported last week that McCain, the U.S. senator from Arizona widely considered an early frontrunner for the 2008 Republican nomination, had raised about $12.5 million through the campaign’s first quarter. That’s about half as much as challenger Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, and $2.5 million less than former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

“It’s obviously early in the process,” said William A. Beauregard, a Keene resident and chairman of McCain’s Cheshire County campaign. “We’re not concerned. ... Other candidates spent a great amount of time on fundraising. ... Our organization is so far superior to others so money isn’t a real issue.”


While other candidates were busy raising money over the first months of the campaign season, McCain’s camp was busy setting its roots in New Hampshire, Iowa and other early primary states, according to campaign spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker.

Since announcing his intention to run, McCain has visited New Hampshire twice. He has held five town hall meetings, among other events, over six total days. And he’s planned another trip for the end of the month, she said. He was last in the Monadnock Region a year ago, drawing a standing-room-only crowd at Keene State College.

“The McCain campaign has very deep ties to the early primary states,” Hazelbaker said. “We’re building a very deep organization in each of them. ... (Fundraising) is not a concern to us in New Hampshire.”

Hazelbaker cited the 60,000 donors from around the country who contributed financially to McCain’s campaign as evidence of his widespread support. And more will surely come, offering more money through the next months of the campaign, Beauregard said.

“We’re really not concerned,” he said.

But McCain has more troubles than just the amount of fundraising dollars, according to Dean J. Spiliotes, research director of the N.H. Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College in Manchester.

His unwavering support for the Iraq War, an increasingly unpopular effort, may be isolating him from prospective voters, Spiliotes said.

McCain, who has campaigned hard for the war since returning from a trip to Iraq earlier this month, first struck a chord with voters in the 2000 election, when he developed a reputation as a straight talker with strong convictions. He won the N.H. Republican primary that year over then-governor George W. Bush.

But now that his convictions on Iraq don’t coincide with those of many voters, his principles are in question, Spiliotes said.

“He’s in a tough spot,” he said. “People like him because he seems to do what he thinks is right, but he’s doing it on a policy ... that’s very unpopular.”

McCain’s position on Iraq may be contributing to his decline in numbers, Spiliotes said, both in fundraising dollars and in support.

In an April 5 poll by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, McCain led the pack of Republican candidates, tying Giuliani with 29 percent support of those surveyed.

The vote tops the Republican field, but it’s also a dramatic drop-off from the 40 percent that McCain received in the center’s study in February 2005.

“This isn’t a political decision for John McCain,” said Hazelbaker, the McCain spokeswoman. “He’s stated repeatedly that he’d rather lose a presidential campaign than lose this war.”

But, according to supporters around the Monadnock Region, it may not come down to that.

“I think he can win,” said G. Jarvis Coffin of Hancock, who voted for McCain in 2000, and is supporting him again as of now. “He may be taking a little hit because his support for the war. But, he says what’s on his mind. People like that about him.”

McCain’s stance on the war might even help him in the eyes of some voters, according to Beauregard, chairman of McCain’s Cheshire County camp.

“That’s one of the reasons why I support him,” Beauregard said. “I haven’t heard any other candidate, whether Republican or Democrat, take such a (strong) stand on Iraq. ... Certainly there’s no one that’s running for president that has the military experience that he has. ... We need that kind of leadership.”



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