McCain Pulling Out of Michigan

John McCain apparently thinks he doesn't have a chance in Michigan.

UPDATE: McCain-Palin Political Director Mike Duhaime told reporters this afternoon that "the [Michigan] operations will be scaled back" but they still will have a presence. Resources will be specifically shifted to Maine, where McCain is "opening up an aggressive front" and where the state's four Electoral College votes are split.

Resources are also being sent to Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and other more competitive states.

McCain senior adviser Greg Strimple said they have no idea if the Republican National Committee is going to continue advertising in Michigan. McCain has no plans to, unless Michigan starts to swing back to his favor.

"It's been the worst state of all the states that are in play" for a Republican right now, Strimple said. "It's an obvious one, from my perspective, to take off the list."

Barack Obama has abandoned efforts in Alaska, Georgia and North Dakota.


A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the White House. McCain's campaign counts 260 sure electoral votes for their candidate, including those in Ohio, North Carolina, Ohio, Missouri and Indiana. They say he only needs 10 more from the competitive states - such as Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Colorado, Nevada, New Hampshire and New Mexico - to win.

Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, in particular, are "two states [that] would be key to putting us over 270" votes, DuHaime added.

But Real Clear Politics doesn't have McCain anywhere near 260. It counts 158 "solid" votes for McCain-Palin, with another 5 "leaning" votes possible, while it gives Obama-Biden 171 "solid" votes with another 88 "leaning." That totals 163 for McCain, and 259 for Obama. It has 116 electoral votes "up for grabs," however.

Obama has succeeded in making the traditional Republican strongholds of Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia competitive. McCain staffers say that Obama may be ahead in some competitive states, tied, or just slightly behind McCain in others, because McCain has been "letting" Obama spend his cash there while McCain waits to make his move. But once he does, particularly the competitive states with strong GOP constituencies, will "snap back aggressively in our favor," said Strimple.

McCain can use RNC money on top of the $84 million he's getting in public funding. The RNC today announced it raked in $66 million in September - its best month since October of 2000.

Citing two Republican sources, Politico.com earlier today reported that McCain is going off the air in that state, will stop dropping mail there, and will redeploy staff to more competitive states. Politico says the move indicates the GOP is having a hard time finding blue states to perhaps swing red - or, at least, purple.

The Detroit Free Press had reported that a Republican source said the Republican National Committee - which pays the state's GOP staffers - called state party Chairman Saul Anuzis this afternoon and told him the campaign would be moving workers out of Michigan and into Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida.

The Free Press said McCain campaign manager Rick Davis called former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Michigan native, to tell him of the decision just before Romney got on a conference call with reporters today to talk about how Obama's economic policies - and those of Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who is playing the role of Sarah Palin in practice debates with Obama running mate Joe Biden - were bad for Michigan.

Republicans had been hopeful about Michigan. They thought they could target those white, working-collar voters that don't seem to take too much of a liking to Obama.

But AP says Republican strategists said the state's poor economy and McCain's association with the now-unpopular President Bush was just too much for the Arizona senator to overcome. His problems were compounded in Michigan following the Wall Street collapse.

A Detroit Free Press-Local 4 Michigan Poll from late last month showed that an increasing number of Michigan voters think Obama is the man who can better handle the country's economic woes. The poll showed Obama leading McCain, 51%-38%, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The Illinois Democrat's lead was attributed to widespread support among women and independents there.

In the last three presidential elections - 1996, 2000 and 2004 - Michigan voted 3 percent more Democratic than the nation as a whole.