McCain Team Announcement In Case You Missed It

 

Quincy, MA. – Massachusetts’ Independent candidate for Governor, Treasurer Tim Cahill is featured in the following news reports after announcing the principal strategists for John McCain were joining his team today:

 

 

 “Charlie Baker is the consummate insider who was the first C.F.O. of the Big Dig – the greatest fiscal public works disaster in world history – and his running mate voted against tax cuts while serving in the state legislature. Their record on the issues and the mathematical breakdown of a three way race against a fiscal conservative like Tim Cahill literally makes them unelectable. As I last recalled, the original ‘tea party’ occurred here in Massachusetts. I find working men and women here are pretty opposed to self anointment and thus not likely to take to ‘King Charlie’ and ‘Prince Richard’ and their big spending ways. They are the tax and spend ticket.”

 

“Cahill wants to cut taxes and brands himself as a paragon of fiscal responsibility. He's courting blue collar Scott Brown voters who are frustrated with the status quo.." 

 

ABC: McCain Team Re-unites—for Democrat turned Independent in Massachusetts
“For Cahill, it creates an unusual partnership of campaign minds that includes Democratic strategist Tad Devine, the former top adviser to the Al Gore and John Kerry presidential campaigns. Devine’s media consulting firm is handling the campaign’s advertising strategy, and Devine is serving in a senior advisory role to Cahill.

 

‘We really wanted to hammer home that independent message, and you can’t do that in a better way than to have a Democratic consultant and a Republican consultant,’” said campaign spokeswoman Amy Birmingham.
 

CNN: Mass. Independent's GOP hires
“The effort to unseat Gov. Deval Patrick is kindling the bipartisan spirit in Massachusetts. Tim Cahill, a former Democrat who became an independent last year, announced Friday that he had signed up four veterans of Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential bid.

Massachusetts AP News:  Cahill Taps McCain Team for Gubernatorial Race
“Cahill announced Friday he had hired John Weaver, Mark Salter, Michael Dennehy and John Yob to help with his independent candidacy this fall.”
 

Hotline: Romney’s Home State Jam
“But if GOPers settle on Harvard Pilgrim CEO Charlie Baker (R), the front-runner in the primary at the moment, an independent candidate has signaled he will make the case that he, not the GOP nominee, is the true conservative.

 

The third candidate, state Treas. Tim Cahill, is no gadfly. He already has $3.2M in the bank, according to state campaign finance reports, and he's won election statewide -- albeit as a Dem. Now, he's signed on a top-level campaign team, including John Weaver, John Yob, Mark Salter and Mike Dennehy, all high-profile GOP strategists.

 

Baker had $1.46M in the bank as of the new year, while Patrick had $634K on hand. Baker has support from ex-MA Gov. Bill Weld (R), a centrist GOPer who backed Pres. Obama over Sen. John McCain in '08. And though the GOP has a chance to take back the seat, Cahill's team will move to paint Baker as a liberal GOPer who as a top state budget official in the '90s made poor financial decisions over the Big Dig. Baker, Cahill's people will argue, would do more harm to the party than good.”

Washington Independent: McCain Team Backs Independent Candidate in Massachusetts
“Weaver profiles the message against GOP gubernatorial hopeful Charlie Baker:

 

Weaver said he broke GOP ranks because, ‘An elitist like Baker can’t (relate to voters). He’s a big-spending liberal Republican at a time when that clearly is out of vogue.’

 

The early strategy will be to pulverize Baker’s reputation with conservative voters inside and outside of the Bay State. Baker’s running mate is pro-choice, while Cahill’s is pro-life — and while pro-life voters went for the nominally pro-choice Scott Brown, the thinking is that, post-Brown, with embattled Gov. Deval Patrick (D-Mass.) leading the race, they shouldn’t have to settle.”