John McCain
Schmidt, in Memo, Consolidates Control Over Campaign
Sen. John McCain talks with senior adviser Steve Schmidt, left, after arriving in Romulus, Mich., earlier this year. (Associated Press)
By Michael D. Shear
The first evidence of Steve Schmidt's new role at the helm of the John McCain campaign came today in the form of a memo to his regional campaign managers (as first reported by The Fix), lauding their work but informing them that there will be new leadership at the top.
Schmidt confirmed that he will be hiring a national political director and a field director -- decisions that essentially undo the plan to give great autonomy to the regional managers.
But Schmidt nonetheless went out of his way to praise the regional leaders, saying they had done much in a short period of time to assemble a McCain team on the ground.
"You have built statewide and county leadership teams in the targeted states and in the coming months will even further develop our organizations to the precinct level in every state that will decide this election," he wrote. "It is an incredible amount of progress for a campaign that ended the primaries with no money, little infrastructure, and no formal organization outside the early primary states."
The full memo is below:
MEMORANDUM
TO: Regional Campaign Managers
FROM: Steve Schmidt
DATE: July 3, 2008
SUBJECT: Regional Operations
With 124 days to go until the election, our campaign is now leaning more and more on your regional operations to continue Senator McCain's success and growth. Over the last month when we began deploying our field operations, you have done a fantastic job of opening the 11 regional offices in key states, staffing those offices with over 70 staff, and deploying 17 state directors across the country. You have built statewide and county leadership teams in the targeted states and in the coming months will even further develop our organizations to the precinct level in every state that will decide this election. It is an incredible amount of progress
for a campaign that ended the primaries with no money, little infrastructure, and no formal organization outside the early primary states.
In addition, you have successfully worked with the Republican National Committee through the Victory effort to open 84 offices and put 113 staff into the field. Hundreds more field staff will be hitting the ground in the coming weeks and more Victory Centers opening, all of which will work together with our regional campaign managers and the RNC regional political directors to help elect John McCain and Republicans around the country.
In order to strengthen our regional operations and provide better coordination between our headquarters and the regions, we are going to be adding a Political Director and a Field Director to our headquarters organization. These individuals will work with all of you and with Christian Ferry to increase our capacity to reach out to voters, build coalitions, identify supporters, and ultimately turn them out to the polls on November 4. We will be enhancing our headquarters political capacity to provide additional resources to you and your regions.
The organizations you are leading are providing important coordination in the field between all the various aspects of our campaign - whether that is political organization, finance, surrogates, communications, coalitions etc. In the days ahead, we will be working to enhance and strengthen the coordination between all these aspects of the campaign. By putting emphasis on our regional operations and hiring experienced managers such as you, we have built a campaign that will be nimble when it counts and close to the ground where grassroots activity will drive our message and efforts.
We have all been involved in presidential campaigns in the past, but this campaign is special because of the unique honor of working for a candidate like John McCain - a man who never surrenders. With 124 days to go, we have one job - electing John McCain the next President of the United States. I am confident that with our team, we will get the job done.
Posted at 12:56 PM ET on Jul 3, 2008
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Comments
Posted by: Humpty Dumpty | July 5, 2008 2:45 AM | Report abuse
There's a funny posting on 236.com about Steve Schmidt that I thought was worth checking out: http://www.236.com/news/2008/07/03/mccain_campaign_taken_over_bys_7521.php
Posted by: Taylor | July 4, 2008 2:02 PM | Report abuse
Paris-Hilton.wikidot.com
Posted by: Paris-Hilton.wikidot.com | July 3, 2008 8:28 PM | Report abuse
Paris-Hilton.wikidot.com
Posted by: Paris-Hilton.wikidot.com | July 3, 2008 5:08 PM | Report abuse
This story completely leaves out the fact that McCain's new man in charge, Steve Schmidt, is a former top Dick Cheney aide. That should tell you everything you need to know about Mr. McSAME. Schmidt is legendary in GOP circles for his bull-dog personality and his relentless personal attacks on the opposition. He is also the king of the Bush/Cheney school of media manipulation. The fact that John McCain has given Schmidt carte blanche authority to engage in his dark art of media manipulation bodes poorly for the remainder of this campaign. Expect to see vicious personal attacks from the McCain campaign from here on out. McCain has realized that he has nothing to run on, and that he loses on the issues, so he's handing over the reigns to the NeoCons and their smear machine. Lord Vader returns.
Posted by: hesingswithfrogs | July 3, 2008 3:58 PM | Report abuse
Jeb Bush, McCain's VP.
Posted by: Fareed | July 3, 2008 2:58 PM | Report abuse
Four more years! Four more years!...
Posted by: godblessusa | July 3, 2008 2:48 PM | Report abuse
The mccain camp seems a little slow on the get go, huh? They had months of running without competition while the dems sorted their contest out. Wouldn't you think that the McCain camp would be in BETTER shape than the dems campaign? And yet, they're not, the McCain campaign has actually been quite a mess. What is mccains message? What does he actually stand for now that he's flipped on most of the pertinent issues? If he runs his white house like he's run his campaign, the country would be in a world of hurt. Obama on the other hand is running an excellent campaign, and if that's any estimation, we could expect the same for his white house.
Why is the mccain camp so far behind when they had a head start?
Posted by: JDB | July 3, 2008 2:32 PM | Report abuse
The $300 billion housing bailout bill, currently stalled in Congress, promises to rescue homeowners and save the economy. Comprising the core of the bill is a $300 billion increase in FHA lending permitting banks to offload their riskiest mortgages onto American taxpayers in exchange for realizing losses that would be all but a certainty
http://www.beyondthemargin.net/2008/06/housing-bailout-close-to-fruition.html
Posted by: Jimmy | July 3, 2008 1:30 PM | Report abuse
McCain has simply decided to run a third Bush campaign. Schmidt is a Rove disciple and will move the campaign to the right and towards a dirty fight.
Posted by: matt | July 3, 2008 1:15 PM | Report abuse
All your base are belong to us
Posted by: Anonymous | July 3, 2008 1:06 PM | Report abuse
The average American does not know that so far under GW Bush's presidency that America has gained 5.1 million jobs under Bush's last 7-and-a-half years. Under the Bill Clinton presidency America gained 22 million jobs over 8 years, and gained 5.1 million jobs in the last two years of Clinton's presidency.
Also under GW Bush the US national debt has gone up from 5.8 to nearly 10 trillion dollars. That is a $4.2 trillion increase in 7.5 years!!!! Under Bill Clinton the national debt only went up $1.6 trillion in only 8 years.
And McCain wants to continue the Bush economic policies? NO THANK YOU!
Obama in 08!
Posted by: Obama-Junkie | July 3, 2008 1:04 PM | Report abuse
The comments to this entry are closed.
The mccain camp seems a little slow on the get go, huh? They had months of running without competition while the dems sorted their contest out. Wouldn't you think that the McCain camp would be in BETTER shape than the dems campaign? And yet, they're not, the McCain campaign has actually been quite a mess.
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Steve Schmidt is in a big hurry to get the Straight Talk Express back up to speed. According to his calculations if they get it up to speed asap they will have time for one more shake up and reorganization of the campaign before election day. That last course correction will put him right on target to winning the big one.