Posted on 06/01/2007 3:05:11 PM PDT by Sleeping Beauty
Two former aides hired to spearhead religious outreach for presidential candidate John McCain say ... that McCain's top campaign strategists are intent on winning votes of religious voters without having to develop serious ties to faith communities.
The aides, who were fired in early April after roughly three months on the job, said the campaign staff ... pressed them to collect church directories—a controversial tactic—as the centerpiece of a strategy to woo "values" voters.
"In the end, you came away with the strong sense that they had contempt for the faith-based community," says Marlene Elwell, one of those fired staffers. Elwell, a prominent Christian-right activist, was hired by McCain in December 2005 to be national director of his "Americans of Faith" coalition. "The way we were being treated it was as if we had leprosy."
The McCain campaign said the aides' dismissals were performance-related and were part of a broader staff reshuffling earlier this spring that grew from weaker-than-expected fundraising.
Judy Haynes—a former top Christian Coalition official hired to work under Elwell—had an assessment similar to Elwell's, saying in a separate interview that the campaign exhibited "a contempt for Christians."
"It's an attitude about the Christian community that they don't like to have to do [outreach] but that they need to do it," Haynes said, referring to the McCain campaign's religious outreach plan. "Like, if we can get what we want without having to get too close [to religious people] and not make a big display, we'll do it."
Haynes said she was particularly disturbed by what she called the campaign's overreliance on collecting church directories as an organizing strategy. "The campaign plan to get the [religious] vote is to rape and pillage the church [membership] lists, and we didn't want to do that."
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
I didn't realize McCain was still running. Has anyone checked to make sure this isn't from 2000?
bump
McCain has contempt for any one who doesn’t see things the way he does. It doesn’t matter which group either.
To: John McCain
From: Christian Values Voters
Are you nuts? If you’re so worried about attracting religous votes, then don’t be yelling “F*** You!” at fellow senators.
Thank you.
Retire.Now.Live comfortably under the very generous gov't pension you have coming to you.
Just leave....please.
I know Marlene Elwell. One of the most capable grassroots organizers in the country. If they had her onboard, they were doing something pretty smart. If they lost her, they got really, really dumb.
What conservative christian doesn’t know that McCain just pays lip service (if that) to Christians?
You know — the only McCain fan I happen to know is an Arizona Democrat.
I hope FDT’s people are now calling Ms. Elwell.....would be a good pickup!
Ping for Christians
LOL! Good point!
He cannot get away from the number 14
Thanks for the Christian ping.
Never let him forget 14.
Ooops John, your character is showing..
His numbers should be in the minus category... I can’t believe he’s still in the top 4.
As the saying goes..."From your lips to God's ears."
You know, I’m generally pretty skeptical of these reports I hear from fired staff members or those who just resigned. I knew people like that, and often times they were unsteady people just waiting to go off.
But somehow, this doesn’t surprise me about McCain, and I’m actually inclined to believe the guys.
Hopefully.
I hope he's the first to get trounced and withdraw from the race.
He's disgraceful.
Spoken as a Christian for whom mclame finds comtempt.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.