McCain Forgos Secret Service Protection
WASHINGTON — Senator McCain of Arizona is not currently protected by the Secret Service, despite having locked up the Republican nomination for president and spending most of his time campaigning before large crowds, the director of the agency testified yesterday.
The director of the Secret Service, Mark Sullivan, told a House appropriations subcommittee that the two-time presidential contender has not yet requested the agency's services.
"Statutorily, he is not required to take protection," Mr. Sullivan said in response to a question during a hearing on the agency's budget. "As far as an actual request, we have not gotten one. We have no involvement at this point."
Mr. McCain has repeatedly said he does not want Secret Service protection, expressing the belief that it will restrict his ability to connect with voters at his trademark town hall meetings. Last November, he told reporters that he planned to resist it as long as he could.
His status contrasts with that of the leading Democratic contenders during what Secret Service officials say has been an extraordinarily busy campaign.
Senator Obama of Illinois began receiving Secret Service protection in May 2007, 18 months before the election. Senator Rodham Clinton already had protection because she is a former first lady.
A senior McCain adviser, Steve Schmidt, said yesterday that the campaign had no comment on the senator's security measures.
Mr. McCain does have private bodyguards who accompany him to events. When he travels on charter planes, reporters and staffers are screened and wanded by private security each time they board.
On one recent flight in Mississippi, a bomb-sniffing dog swept through the press bus before reporters were allowed to board Mr. McCain's Jet Blue charter.
But that level of security pales in comparison to the protection at Clinton and Obama campaign events, where Secret Service agents always are very visible, shadowing the Democratic candidates, even when they are at rope lines with voters.
