McCain picks leader of daily operations
WASHINGTON - John McCain put a top adviser in control of day-to-day campaign operations yesterday after weeks of private concerns among Republicans that the GOP presidential campaign had not made the transition for the general election.
Steve Schmidt, a veteran of President Bush's reelection and a member of the Arizona senator's inner circle, will oversee daily operations involving politics, planning, coalitions, scheduling, and communications from the campaign's northern Virginia headquarters.
The campaign's 300-person staff will report to Schmidt, who will report to campaign manager Rick Davis.
Davis, who took the reins of the campaign almost exactly a year ago amid a major staff shake-up, will continue to focus on long-term planning, the vice presidential search, fund-raising, and the convention.
He told the staff of Schmidt's expanded role at a meeting yesterday at headquarters, saying Schmidt would have full operational control of the campaign's daily activities.
"This is a natural growth of the campaign and we think it's a good thing," said spokesman Brian Rogers.
Other changes and additions are expected.
Republican officials with knowledge of the plans said Schmidt probably will shift the political operations into a more traditional structure, including the hiring of a single political director and a single field director who will have authority over those divisions. The campaign has been criticized for its nontraditional, decentralized structure that broke the country into 11 regions with a campaign manager for each.
Since McCain wrapped up the nomination in March, Republican insiders have privately expressed concerns that the stripped-down campaign of the primary season was not adequately transformed into a general election operation able to take on Senator Barack Obama.
Schmidt, 38, presided over Arnold Schwarzenegger of California's successful gubernatorial reelection bid two years ago.
Schmidt also was a top aide in Bush's reelection campaign in 2004 and worked for Vice President Dick Cheney in the White House.
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The ad will run in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin beginning Sunday. The ad represents the first of the RNC's independent expenditure operation.
The effort will be run by Republican media consultant Brad Todd of On Message Inc., a media and polling firm that worked on Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.
Todd said the ad will focus on energy, "which is emerging as a defining difference in the race for president."
By setting up a separate organization within the RNC, the national party can spend unlimited resources on behalf of McCain as long as it does not coordinate with the candidate's campaign.
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