Opinion: John McCain advisor sent packing over interest conflict
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John McCain‘s campaign sent a top advisor packing after questions surfaced over his role in a 527 group -- the kind of organization that is barred from coordinating activities with political campaigns.
Consultant Craig Shirley, a public relations veteran, got the heave-ho after a reporter for Politico began asking questions about his role in the ‘Stop Her Now’ 527 and his former spot as a paid advisor to the McCain campaign (he apparently was most recently an unpaid volunteer).
And given McCain’s insistence that he represents a new kind of politics, you can expect
this to echo into the fall in various incarnations. As Politico reports:
‘McCain campaign manager Rick Davis moved to avoid a recurrence of the situation with his conflict-of-interest policy, released late yesterday. It also sought to stem the impression that McCain’s campaign is run by lobbyists — a characterization Democrats have tried to make since it was reported that a senior adviser, Charlie Black, made lobbying calls from McCain’s signature bus, the Straight Talk Express. Davis himself is currently on leave from his lobbying and consulting firm, and the campaign removed two other officials this week for work they’d done on behalf of Burmese junta.’
Figure McCain’s advisor problems to come up full-throated on, say, Sept. 26 in Oxford, Miss.
UPDATE: No need to wait. The MoveOn.org folks have already done an ad.
-- Scott Martelle
