McCain N.Y. Headquarters Will Be in New Jersey
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Senator McCain is snubbing New York by declining to have a campaign office in the Empire State, dimming chances for a competitive general election campaign here.
The McCain campaign said yesterday its New York operations would be based out of what the campaign billed as a “New Jersey/New York regional campaign headquarters” in Woodbridge, N.J., a 30- to 40-minute drive from New York City. The campaign will hold a grand opening this afternoon with a contingent of elected officials from the Garden State, but none from New York.
The decision reflects a nod to sobering poll numbers and limited campaign funds. It nonetheless dampens the initial optimism among New York Republicans that Mr. McCain could make a run at the state by touting his reputation as a maverick and targeting Democrats dejected by Senator Clinton’s defeat in the Democratic primary.
Mr. McCain is expected to make a bigger play in New Jersey, which featured a much closer race than New York in 2004. Senator Kerry defeated President Bush by 19 points in New York, while his margin of victory in New Jersey was 7 points.
The incumbent president did not mount an aggressive campaign in the Empire State in 2004, but Republicans converged on New York City for their nominating convention that summer.
The Arizona senator’s campaign insists it is not writing off New York, and its office in Woodbridge will be one of 11 regional sites nationwide as part of a strategy to decentralize campaign operations and tailor them to specific areas of the country.
But the idea of basing the New York campaign in New Jersey has left at least one prominent Empire State supporter less than enthused.
“I look upon this as being their New Jersey headquarters,” Rep. Peter King, a Republican of Long Island, said in an interview. “I know it says New York-New Jersey, but the fact that you have all these state elected officials from New Jersey on it, to me I look at it as the New Jersey headquarters, and we’ll see what happens in New York.”
A campaign press release announcing today’s grand opening lists five campaign officials from New Jersey, including two state Senators, as planning to attend. The release listed no one from New York, but Mr. McCain’s New York State chairman, Edward Cox, said he plans to attend with his son, Christopher, who is also working on the state campaign.
In an interview, the elder Mr. Cox said the campaign was expanding its operations in New York, and that despite no physical office it had five paid staff members plus an increasing army of volunteers.
“I don’t have that concern,” he said when asked about the regional headquarters being located in New Jersey.
Though the election is more than four months away, early polls suggest it is unlikely Mr. McCain can become the first Republican presidential nominee to win New York since President Reagan in 1984. A New York Times survey earlier this month showed Mr. Obama with a 19-point lead, 51% to 32%. A Quinnipiac University poll gave Mr. Obama a 14-point edge, 50% to 36%.
A closer campaign is shaping up in New Jersey, where two recent surveys showed Mr. Obama with a lead in the single digits.
Mr. McCain’s decision to accept public financing — and Mr. Obama’s decision to reject it — may also hamper the Republican’s ability to spend money in states like New York where victory is likely out of reach and both office space and television advertising time are expensive. Public financing limits Mr. McCain to spending a total of $84 million, although the Republican National Committee can help out on his behalf.
“You have to be careful with your money,” Mr. King said. “Obviously I’d love to see more of a presence in New York, but I’m not going to be one of those guys who says, ‘You have to do it my backyard.'”
Mr. Obama’s campaign has boasted of having the resources to run in all 50 states, and a spokeswoman vowed the Obama campaign would open an office in New York for the general election, although it has not done so yet.
Messrs. King and Cox each said the key to Mr. McCain’s chances of putting New York in play would be to go after Clinton supporters and paint Mr. Obama as “far left” and out of the mainstream. “This is a very fiscally conservative state. There are lots of Reagan Democrats,” Mr. Cox said.
Whether Mr. McCain improves on Mr. Bush’s performance in New York could depend on if Mr. Obama picks Mrs. Clinton as his running mate. Another wild card may be Mayor Bloomberg, who has been mentioned as a vice presidential possibility for both candidates.