It used to be that presidential campaign bragging rights in South Carolina went to one man: J. Warren Tompkins. Over the years, Tompkins had gained the reputation for being able to “pick a winner” with potential presidential campaigns. The powerhouse consultant appeared to confirm that status when he brokered the upset win of now-president George W. Bush in the 2000 Palmetto State GOP primary.
But after spending over $5 million in the last 12 months across South Carolina, the Tompkins-directed campaign of Mitt Romney finished a dreadful fourth place in Saturday’s primary. And according to The National Journal, the days of Tompkins’ ability to saddle up with a winner ended in 2000 when that year’s runners-up patiently crafted what would become a successful eight-year campaign to assail the top spot and deliver John McCain the win he had been denied.
[N]ot long after Bush was sworn into office seven years ago, the McCain faithful in South Carolina began evaluating their mistakes and weaknesses, and started trying to heal political wounds — readying themselves and their candidate for another round. “Establishment” is generally not a word associated with McCain, whose defiance of party leaders has long since earned him a reputation as a dogged and sometimes cantankerous maverick. But in the same state where he was once painted as a brash outsider, he now boasts the kind of legislative and entrenched organizational infrastructure that Texas Gov. Bush enjoyed in 2000.
McCain’s 2008 South Carolina leadership team is chaired by state Attorney General Henry McMaster, state House Speaker Bobby Harrell, and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham. Almost half of the original members of McCain’s 2008 finance team in the state, including top finance committee guru Bob Royall, were Bush backers in 2000. A majority of Republican members of the state Legislature have endorsed McCain, as has South Carolina’s biggest newspaper, The State, which gave its nod to Bush last time.
McCain’s foothold within the old guard was hard-won. Soon after the 2000 election, the leaders of his South Carolina team — former national field director Trey Walker and lead South Carolina strategist Richard Quinn — began to plant the seeds of a new political apparatus. In the years that followed, McCain made countless visits to the state to campaign for Republican candidates. He attended a parade of dinners, fundraisers, meetings, and rallies in his effort to woo longtime party activists. By January 2007, more than a year before Saturday’s do-or-die day, many of them were ready to sign on.
Now, Quinn estimates, at least 70 percent of the state’s Republican Party structure has endorsed McCain. His state steering committee is peppered with titles — state representative, mayor, county commissioner, solicitor, sheriff — that illustrate the depth of his support, at least among the political class. “We’ve done a lot of homework this time that we didn’t do last time,” Quinn says. [...]
McCain’s supporters, though, point out that his South Carolina organization weathered the campaign’s darkest days, when opposition to his support for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants reached a fever pitch last summer. There were no significant defections, even as the national news media began to characterize the financially strapped candidate as a dead man walking. “With any other candidate,” Quinn adds, “they would have all jumped ship.”
During the seven years that McCain’s team spent mending fences with the conservative establishment in South Carolina, its often-rebellious candidate complicated its task by butting heads with national conservative interests in Washington. He bucked the GOP on torture, campaign finance, judicial nominees, and immigration. [CARRIE DANN - National Journal]
Being the best is about more than just winning, it’s about doing so with class. Quinn, Walker and their team of McCainiacs never gave up on their candidate — although most in politics disappear when the weather is less than fair — and they stuck by him for eight long years, during the good and the bad times. And like McCain, they have now earned a frontrunner status of their own.
For South Carolinians, politics often function as a metaphor for life. The fall of one group is often accompanied by the rise of another group. And nothing could be more emblematic of that paradigm than this story.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 4:29 pm and is filed under Primary Season, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
[...] Seriously, if you do nothing else today, you must read this. [...]
Don’t look now, but it appears that Thompkins did pick the winner–just not in South Carolina–but that’s OK because it’s a marathon and not a sprint.
As for the story about an 8-year campaign in South Carolina–that goes contrary to all the criticism you put on Romney right before disparaging his results. Talking about out-spending opponents, and so forth, yet not getting the expected results. But here you have McCain who is so power hungry that he sticks it to the GOP every chance he gets, he wants the White House so bad that he can’t get SC in 2000 out of his head and it becomes such an obsession that he can’t repeat his win in Michigan.
McCain has peaked. There aren’t enough “open” primaries between now and the convention for him to win the necessary delegates. Now that Fred is gone, and he refuses to endorse his old pal McCain–look for the conservative vote to be split no more. Romney has the organization, the financing, the ability to face the biggest problem the country faces (it’s the economy stupid!), and the strongest conservative platform.
Perhaps we’ll let you moderates back on the bandwagon come convention time, but we might just be better off without you.
And then when voters actually weigh in, McCain consistently pulls in fewer votes than he did in 2000 (in virtually every state). So if I spent 8 years campaigning, but my percentage falls from 44% to 33% of the vote, was it really worth it?
John McCain: The Wrong Man at the Wrong Time. Geez. I wonder if Lindsey will only get 33%.
Was $5 million worth 15%???
Talk about being better off…
McCain has changed his straight talk eight times in the last eight years. He no longer talks straight, he speaks Bushtalk. People want REAL change and POSITIVE change. McCain , like Graham, McMaster et al simply doesn’t offer that.
“McCain’s supporters, though, point out that his South Carolina organization weathered the campaign’s darkest days, when opposition to his support for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants reached a fever pitch last summer. ”
When will the media report this honestly??? I know - never, but still this is just patent BS.
It most certainly was NOT simply a “path to citizenship” but general blanket amnesty for those not only here illegally now butalso those who wanted to come in the future. Thank God the public saw past the name-calling and insults from a pissed off McCain and Graham (who wanted us to just go away so they could ram this crap through) and rejected this abomination. Maybe one day it will be reported correctly.
NOW, you hear McCain talking about “securing the borders” where he never did before. I wonder why?
Anyone who considers themselves a conservative can’t possibly consider McCain one as well.
P.S. - Even Republican Precinct Committemen in Arizona don’t like McCain and it’s not close. 59% against, 11% for.
Heh.
He hasn’t fooled them, even though he has fooled others.
The biggest difference in the McCain win as opposed to years past is that he only got a plurality. Realistically two thirds of South Carolina voted against him. I think Nevada was a telling state where immigration is a hot topic. He hardly got a smell there. Plus even though Sheriff Joe Aapaio likes McCain, he is endorsing Romney because of his immigration stance among other things. Unlike Chuck Norris, who plays a lawman on TV, Arpaio is one in real life with real experience at the border.
Marty,
Was $5 million worth it? Oh, you could argue that 15% in South Carolina would have only been worth $4 million or $3 million, but the fact that he was competative in South Carolina as recently a few days and weeks beforehand (and garnered him significant conservative endorsements), then you could argue it was worth it.
For Romney, it has all been about name recognition. He dumped tons of money into early states so he could get his name out there. Only after you do that can you effectively present your message.
If you look at the polling, most of the Fred Heads and Hucksters had Romney listed as their second choice.
Hello.
I live near the border in AZ.
Most of those living near the border despise McCain.
He betrayed us.
So did the national GOP, by interferring in our last CD8 primary.
We’re still angry.