Posted on 05/20/2002 5:40:42 AM PDT by madprof98
Washington --- John Weaver, political director of Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, has left the Republican Party.
The Texas native, who broke ranks with George W. Bush to join McCain, is helping the New Hampshire Democratic Party back Gov. Jeanne Shaheen's bid for the U.S. Senate. He also is working on strategy for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's midterm election candidates.
"I don't think it surprised one person in McCain-land," he said. "I think they thought I was a Democrat all along."
Weaver is former executive director of the Texas Republican Party and was national field director for Sen. Phil Gramm's 1996 presidential bid.
He said he still talks with McCain almost every day and that he told him in advance about his decision to become a Democrat. McCain did not ask him to reconsider, but Weaver dismisses talk that the maverick Republican senator one day might change his stripes, too.
"He's optimistic that he can change the Republican Party, but John's the eternal optimist," Weaver said. "I don't share that optimism."
Weaver says his discontent with the GOP sparked his decision to leave. He helped organize the town hall meetings that helped McCain win over independents and Democrats in New Hampshire and elsewhere in 2000. After McCain's 19-point win over Bush in the New Hampshire primary, Weaver said of Republicans: "We have lost our way."
GOP consultant Scott Reed attributes Weaver's change of heart to that cross-party reaching out. "The guy drinks the McCain Kool-Aid and has never fully recovered," Reed said.
That kind of response doesn't surprise Weaver. "My still-Republican friends have gotten feedback. It's nasty stuff. It's not surprising."
Hard feelings remain between the Bush and McCain camps nearly two years after the election. Former McCain campaign director Rick Davis said he thinks that is why Weaver has jumped ship.
"As a longtime Republican strategist, I hate losing guys like John Weaver, and yet, at the same time, the welcome mat at the Republican Party wasn't out for John," Davis said. "It doesn't surprise me that he pursued this option, but, obviously, I wish he'd stayed Republican so we [could] use him some more."
GOP circles say privately that Weaver is no loss. After all, he predicted that if turnout in the make-or-break South Carolina primary hit 325,000, McCain was "in good shape." Turnout was a record-setting 573,101, and Bush won.
"Obviously, we didn't know what we were talking about," Weaver said three days later.
Weaver's wasn't the only cracked crystal ball. Bush political guru Karl Rove's prediction that his candidate would win 320 electoral votes was followed by the 36-day Florida recount.
This week, Bush media adviser Mark McKinnon said he would apologize to the president after it became known that he contributed $14,000 to three Texas Democrats --- U.S. Senate candidate Ron Kirk, lieutenant governor candidate John Sharp and Kirk Watson, a former Austin mayor running for attorney general.
Weaver thinks of his switch as less of a conversion than an evolution.
"Basically, I look at the Republican Party and how it's controlled, really, for the interests of the corporate elite of this country," he said. "I don't see it changing, certainly not in the foreseeable future. The issues I care about, the environment, social issues, increasing a minimum wage, a fair tax code, don't fit anywhere underneath the Republican umbrella."
These days, Weaver is looking forward to taking his 9-year-old daughter on the Democratic campaign trail. His divorce became final about a week ago, and his ex-wife remains in New Hampshire, where the family moved, in part, because the climate helped her cope with multiple sclerosis.
He has moved to New York City, where he always wanted to live, and said that not even being mugged recently when he went out to buy newspapers has changed his mind.
"A guy pulled a knife on me," Weaver said. "There was a bit of a scuffle, but everything's OK."
I'll take my chances with the corporate elite.
If it talks like a socialist and walks like a socialist....
And YES AZ voters should Take Note.
Nice guy. Leaves a wife who has deteriorating health. Rather like his mentor, who left his wife who had been loyal throught his time as a POW and had been horribly injured in a car wreck.
These people are scum, and the democrat party is exactly where they belong.
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