WASHINGTON – Republican presidential candidate John McCain conceded battleground Michigan to Democrat Barack Obama yesterday, a major retreat as he struggles to regain his footing in a campaign increasingly dominated by economic issues.
In another sign of McCain's woes, his campaign signaled that it would counter Obama's efforts in Indiana, a state that hasn't voted for a Democrat since 1964. And, a New Hampshire survey showed the Republican trailing by double digits.
With polls showing Obama leading comfortably, McCain's campaign confirmed it was pulling staff and advertising out of economically distressed Michigan, and one adviser said it was “off the list.” The GOP nominee also canceled a visit there slated for next week. Michigan, with 17 electoral votes, voted for Democrat John Kerry in 2004, but Republicans had poured money into an effort to try to win it this year.
“Operations will be scaled back,” said Mike DuHaime, the campaign's political director.
In Indiana, surveys show a competitive race after Obama spent months pouring money into the state and Republicans resisted countering. Now the Republican National Committee is running TV ads to fight for the state's 11 electoral votes, and McCain senior adviser Greg Strimple said, “We're going to go there.”
Separately, a Saint Anselm College Institute of Politics poll showed Obama leading McCain 49 percent to 37 percent in New Hampshire, a state Kerry narrowly won four years ago and McCain is hoping to capture.
The Michigan decision marked the first time either McCain or Obama has tacitly conceded a traditional battleground state in the race for the White House.
“It's been the worst state of all the states that are in play, and it's an obvious one, from my perspective, to come off the list,” Strimple said.
Obama said McCain's struggle in Michigan appeared to be because of his position on the economy. He said voters in the state and across the country will decide the election based on who they believe will get it moving again.
“I think Sen. McCain was in a difficult situation, and continues to be in a difficult situation, because his economic policies just don't vary very much from the president's,” Obama said in an interview with the Detroit Free Press during a visit to Michigan yesterday.
In a campaign now unfolding across more than a dozen states, the decision means Obama can shift money to other states such as Virginia, Colorado and North Carolina where he is trying to eat into traditional Republican territory. McCain's resources were being sent to Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida and other more competitive states, and aides said he would try to put Maine into play as well.
Obama rejected public financing so he can spend as much as he can raise; McCain's direct spending is limited to $84 million in taxpayer money. But McCain is getting help from the Republican National Committee, which announced yesterday that it had raised nearly $66 million in September. The Democratic National Committee has not been as big a help for Obama, but his massive fundraising makes him rely less on the party.
