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McCain Plans Major Staff Shake-Up
John McCain's campaign, trailing top Republican rivals in money and polls, is undergoing a significant reorganization with staff cuts in every department, officials with knowledge of the shake-up said Monday. Some 50 staffers or more are being let go, and senior aides will be subject to pay cuts as the Arizona senator's campaign bows to the reality of six months of subpar fundraising, these officials said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plans have not been made public. An afternoon conference call was scheduled to announce the results of second-quarter fundraising. Once considered the front-runner for the GOP nomination, McCain came in third in the money chase behind Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, raising $13.6 million in the first three months of the year. He is struggling to reach that total in the second financial quarter.
Story Continues Below Officials said the fundamental leadership of the campaign will not change; Terry Nelson, a veteran of President Bush's winning 2004 campaign, will remain campaign manager but may volunteer his time instead of drawing a salary. Nelson declined to comment, and Brian Jones, the campaign's communications director, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Casting himself as the inevitable candidate as 2006 ended, McCain built an expansive national campaign organization that melded top operatives from Bush's political team with his own base of longtime loyalists from his failed 2000 presidential run. But the fundraising hasn't come in as planned, and the initial spending was excessive, leading the campaign to cut some consultant contracts and low-to-mid-level jobs in the spring, and revamp their finance operation. Despite those changes, McCain's fundraising continued to lag, and his polls numbers in key states have dropped. The shake-up comes as McCain embarks on his sixth trip to Iraq, where he will spend the July 4 holiday with U.S. troops. In his last visit to Iraq in April, he was widely criticized for saying he was cautiously optimistic of success even as he toured Baghdad under heavy military guard. Iraqis accused him of painting too rosy a picture and U.S. critics argued he was out of step with reality.
© 2007 Associated Press.
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
2008 Presidential Race Inside Cover Stories
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