McCain deals with staffing shake-up

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By Charlotte Eby | Wednesday, July 11, 2007 |

DES MOINES — The national campaign manager and chief strategist for U.S. Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign resigned Tuesday, capping a period of fund-raising woes and layoffs for the campaign.

Manager Terry Nelson, an Iowa native, and chief strategist John Weaver made their announcements in a statement released by the campaign, but gave no reasons for their departures.

“This morning I informed Senator McCain that I would be resigning from his presidential campaign, effective immediately,” Nelson said in the statement. “It has been a tremendous honor to serve Senator McCain and work on his campaign.”

A message left for Nelson was not immediately returned.

Nelson announced last week he would work on the campaign without pay after McCain’s campaign raised just $11.2 million for the second quarter.

The campaign said Mark Salter, a Quad-City native and senior aide to McCain, will continue to advise him and the campaign without pay, an arrangement worked out last week. Earlier, officials had said Salter, who has co-authored books with the Arizona senator, would cease day-to-day activities with the campaign.

Dennis Goldford, a professor of politics from Drake University, said recent problems for the campaign aren’t necessarily with the senior campaign staff but with McCain himself, who has tied himself to the unpopular war in Iraq and a comprehensive immigration reform measure backed by President Bush.

“It may not be rats leaving a sinking ship yet, but it certainly is something that does not bode well at all for the McCain campaign,” Goldford said of the resignations.

In a statement, McCain said he accepted the pair’s resignations “with regret and deep gratitude for their dedication, hard work and friendship.”

“In the days and weeks ahead, this campaign will move forward, and I will continue to address the issues of greatest concern to the American people, laying out my vision for a secure and prosperous America,” McCain said.

David Roederer, chairman of McCain’s Iowa campaign, downplayed the shakeup in McCain’s national organization and said he believed the decision was “mutually agreed upon.”

“There’s changes made frequently during a campaign and that doesn’t change who John McCain is and what John McCain stands for, and he’s going to continue to reach out to Iowa voters, and hopefully they will go to the caucuses and vote for him,” Roederer said.

In Iowa, the campaign was forced recently to lay off workers, but Roederer said he didn’t expect any additional staff changes in the state.

McCain is set to return to the state later this month, although a firm date has not been set.

Goldford said McCain was attractive to many voters during his previous 2000 presidential campaign because of the perception he was a maverick.

“He, I think, started off this campaign trying to run not as a maverick, but running as the establishment candidate, which in many ways doesn’t fit McCain,” Goldford said.

His support of the immigration reform measure placed him out of step with many Republicans, Goldford said.

“It’s McCain, and then there’s everybody else in the party. And, you know, that’s like trying to run for chief rabbi in the Vatican,” Goldford said.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report)

Charlotte Eby can be contacted at (515) 243-0138 or chareby@aol.com.