McCain Needed Life Insurance To Get Loan

Washington Post: Bank Required Special Step To Provide Money That Helped McCain Put His Campaign On Track

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Matthew Mosk and Sarah Cohen.

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By last November, John McCain's presidential campaign was broke. To survive, he offered his fundraising lists as collateral for a $3 million line of credit from a local bank. But obtaining the loan required an unusual extra step: He had to take out a special life insurance policy in case he did not survive the campaign.

At the time, the 71-year-old senator's effort was more than $500,000 in the red, and the bank's line of credit was a pivotal lifeline that allowed him to make a strong showing in New Hampshire and eventually vault into the front-runner's position.

McCain's campaign is now back on solid financial ground, having raised at least $7 million this month. His victories in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida have loosened the spigot. In recent days, he has held packed fundraisers in Washington, Florida and California, and 10 days ago, a single event in New York raised $1 million.

Anthony Corrado, a campaign finance expert at Colby College, said he had never heard of a candidate having to secure a loan with a life insurance policy.

"It was a big gamble, but I think one of the most important strategic moves the McCain campaign has made," Corrado said. McCain was "rolling the dice to get the money early, and if they won, it would be easy to repay."

The financial health of all the campaigns became modestly more clear yesterday, as several candidates submitted their 2007 year-end reports to the Federal Election Commission.

McCain's chief rival for the GOP nomination, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, raised $9 million during the last three months of 2007 and lent his campaign $18 million of his own money. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee raised $9 million for the year. Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who dropped out of the White House race Wednesday, raised $59 million last year. Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) received $20 million in the quarter, more than any other Republican.

McCain's finance reports provide new details about how desperate his financial situation was after his campaign suffered a seismic shake-up in the middle of last summer.

The senator from Arizona raised $24 million during the first six months of 2007, half what the campaign had projected. His initial plans called for highly paid consultants, state directors, large operations in California and New York, and state offices around the country.

"Basically, the campaign had overestimated what it could raise, and had overspent," said Charles R. Black Jr., an adviser to McCain. "We had to make dramatic cutbacks."

By late summer, the campaign had cut staff levels in half and closed offices in 20 states. McCain's sole focus became New Hampshire, and virtually all of the campaign's money -- much of it borrowed -- paid for travel expenses and a short burst of television ads there.

"I can't imagine any other campaign doing what he did," said Rebecca Donatelli, who runs McCain's Internet fundraising operation. "We were down to nobody. To nothing. But somehow it was okay because Senator McCain was in the room."

In addition to closing offices, the campaign cut loose political advisers and consultants, including four top strategists who had been paid a combined $400,000 during the first six months of the year, records show.

"We cut a lot of staff. We cut consultants. We cut it down to a bare-bones operation," said Carla Eudy, a senior adviser to McCain. "We lowered our overhead drastically."

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The Money Race
Check out the latest tallies for Republicans and Democrats including how much they've raised and spent since the campaign began.

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She said her top priority was to keep the structure of volunteer fundraisers in place despite news reports suggesting that the campaign was in deep financial trouble.

"No one left us," Eudy said. "That was a key to our later success. It would have looked like we were having a mass exodus -- it would have been harder for us to stay in the game."

According to a week-by-week analysis of contributions and spending, the campaign was $300,000 in debt by early June. Then it slowed its spending and nearly broke even over the summer. By November, the campaign was again in debt, and it continued to lose money until McCain began drawing on the loan that month. That left him with an estimated $872,000 going into the New Hampshire primary.

"I've got to tell you, I cannot come up with another example of a candidate who went so far into the hole without any assurance of being able to dig out of it," said Bruce Buchanan, a University of Texas government professor.

McCain's aides were worried enough to flirt with the idea of accepting federal funds, and they reorganized their financial accounting to prepare for it. But the aides say the campaign is now unlikely to do that, because it would be forced to respect the spending caps that accompany such funds. "It would have been almost irresponsible," Black said. "We knew that this time we would have to persevere without taking the match."

After obtaining the $3 million line of credit from Fidelity & Trust Bank in Bethesda in November, McCain drew $2.97 million between Nov. 18 and Dec. 16, according to campaign records. The chief asset among $5 million pledged as collateral was McCain's huge fundraising lists.

Cleta Mitchell, a Republican campaign finance lawyer who has been a critic of McCain's, said she believes the arrangement raises serious questions. "Did they base this loan on the fact that, even if he lost, he would still be a sitting senator and able to raise money?" she asked. "In my mind, that raises questions about whether he complied with Senate ethics rules," which bar members from using their position to negotiate financial terms that an average citizen could not.

Trevor Potter, the campaign's lawyer, said the lending arrangement was vetted for the campaign and the bank. In addition to producing the fundraising lists as collateral, Potter said, the campaign promised that McCain would continue to make appeals to donors on the lists "as needed to pay off the loan."

Because McCain would have to be alive to give the fundraising lists their value, Potter said, the campaign took out the insurance policy on him.

Potter said that there is "no personal relationship between the senator and the officers at the bank," and adde: "A number of the officers at the bank have made loans to presidential campaigns going back 25 years. They knew exactly how these loans were done."

The gamble started to pay off, campaign aides said, when McCain began his "No Surrender Tour." The name reflected the tour's focus on promoting the troop buildup strategy in Iraq, but within the McCain camp it had a second meaning.

"He started getting people to say, 'Well, let's not write this guy off yet,' " Black said. "Most people I've ever known would have thrown in the towel. . . . He saw a path to get out, and he took it."

Staff writer Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.

[lone-star5]

I wonder why his wife couldn''t supply the cash?

[terrorislam6]

hey hip hop hussein!!!

tell your brothers and sisters to stop murdering non-muslims

typical of radical retarded fascist nazi terrorislamic jihadist slavers and murders

barack hussein obama(D-KENYA)

"You are all my brothers and sisters," Mr Obama told crowds of excited residents who craned their necks to catch a glimpse of the senator.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5290844.stm

One of Obama Jr''s great grandfathers (several generations back), "Owiny" was said to be a powerful leader of the Luo tribe, which moved into Kenya some 400 years ago.

Sarah Obama, a devout Muslim, was quoted telling Obama Jr. "What your grandfather respected was strength. Discipline. This is also why he rejected the Christian religion, I think. For a brief time he converted [to Christianity], and even changed his name to Johnson. But he could not understand such ideas as mercy towards your enemies, or that this man Jesus could wash away a man''s sins. To your grandfather, this was a foolish sentiment, something to comfort women. And so he converted to Islam-he thought its practices conformed more closely to his beliefs."
http://www.usvetdsp.com/jan08/obama_lou%20tribe.htm

Kenya, Islam and Obama Hussein
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/01/obama-islam-and.html

[political12]

Why is the media NOT covering Senator John McCain%u2019s dubious past? His apparently close family links to organized crime? His apparent involvement in defrauding US tax payers of hundreds of millions of dollars as a member of the Keating Five? His appalling record in the treatment of veterans and veterans%u2019 families and the families of MIAs? The following appeared 11 years ago on a small veterans%u2019 website and has been ignored since. Why?

http://www.usvetdsp.com/story22.htm

Sen. McCain Wants To Be President
Check-out his unpresidential credentials

[bdribus]

I refuse to vote for a media-annointed candidate. My vote goes to Huckabee.

[apinchofsalt]

Romney is hurting bad...he should just drop out. Don''t vote for Romney. A vote for Romney is a vote for McCain. Vote Huckabee...He''s the best *** republican out there!

[keithle1]

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE COMPLETELY INSANE IF YOU''RE CONSIDERING VOTING FOR THE REPUBLICAN NOMINEE.

[spinster2]

OBAMA''S RACIST PASTOR DISSES NATALEE HOLLOWAY

http://www.theodoresworld.net/archives/2008/01/post_25.html


BARRACK OBAMA''S CHURCH HONERS RACIST NATION OF ISLAM LEADER,
LOUIS FARRAKHAN WITH LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD.

http://www.newsmax.com/kessler/farrakhan_support/2008/01/17/65177.html

[sophielhu]

Getting life insurance to get a loan is standard practice when your age/health/demographics number crosses a certain threshold
----------------------------------------
Internet is a good place to share information and meet friends. I recently found a nice web site called pubspa.com where you can meet friends who have same interest in beauty care, massage, wellness and spa treatment. You can also share blog, video, game, photos, etc with people from all over the world. Unlike other online dating sites where you have to pay membership fee, this site is totally free. I already made several interesting friends there.

[enoughya]

McCain is just like Bush, right down to the arrogant smirk, and he will continue to destroy the nation and Constitution, just as surely as Bush has. Just look at his record of corruption, and see how close his corruptions and failures mirror those of Bush.

[sgtrds]

Getting life insurance to get a loan is standard practice when your age/health/demographics number crosses a certain threshold .. whether you are John McCain or Joe Blow from Okomo

Posted by cyberus at 05:21 PM : Feb 01, 2008

But Joe Blow from Okomo isn''t running for president.

[tylenol6]

cptdeuce

What else most american''s don''t know about McWar is that
his Arizona constituent''s are trying to RECALL him for
selling out the people with his immigration plan. His wife is also a very, very RICH woman. She is the heir
to the distributor Anheuser Busch. So if you hate Mc Cain you can boycott ANHEUSER BUSCH. Another thing
if McCain gets the nomination, Cindy McCain should be
very worried about. Cindy McCain got caught a couple
of years ago stealing prescription drugs from a charity I think she was representing. IT WAS VERY
EMBARRASSING FOR JOHNNY BOY....so that will eventually
come out. You can even gooogle "Cindy McCain stealing
drugs" and see for yourself. GO RON PAUL........
RON PAUL KNOWS MORE ABOUT THE ECONOMY AND WILL GET
IT ON TRACK BEFORE ANY ONE OF THESE CANDIDATES CAN...

[enoughya]

McCain is way too corrupt and way too old to be president. Who in their right mind would vote for someone involved in the S&L scandal (Keating 5) or likewise committed adultery and left his wife for someone much younger? About 40% of Americans must be real idiots to go along with the McCain thug, just because the media, and elites that control the media, put his ugly, smirky mug up everywhere, oh, and also parade out a list of fellow thugs as if endorsements matter more than record. What some gullible dullards--and they will sink our nation this time, if they get McCain in.

[cyberus-2009]

Geez .. talk about non-news.

Getting life insurance to get a loan is standard practice when your age/health/demographics number crosses a certain threshold .. whether you are John McCain or Joe Blow from Okomo

[tylenol6]

McWar has about as much money as RON PAUL.....RON PAUL
put''s McCain to SHAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The elitist billionaire boys club of media barons have
monopolized the entire mass media news service industry for their wealthy "social class" and they control the outcome of the elections in the U.S. with the tremendous power they enjoy with this illlegal monopoly and the unlawful censorship of RON PAUL. They want to control the outcome of the 2008 elections!!!!
THOSE INVOLVED ARE; ABC, MSNBC, FOX, CNN, CBS
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
TIME MAGAZINE
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
MIAMI-HERALD
SAN DIEGO HERALD TRIBUNE
Just to name a few................BEWARE......

[buddhabman]

Man and they talk about the fractured Democratic party. This is gonna be fun all the way to November.

[rottisrock]

Romney did not lie during the debate, I don''t know which fact check you looked at!

As far as McCain, thanks to Washington Post and CBS News for publishing this story about McCain. I am tired of the media pushing McCain as the front runner.
These news agencies know that those of us that care about secure borders, low taxes, illegals being sent home, economic growth in the USA do not support McCain.
Even Reagans son, Michael, doesn''t think McCain is a conservative. Pay attention RNC. We will not support McCain!!

[myidoncbs]

"[McCain] had to take out a special life insurance policy IN CASE HE DID NOT SURVIVE THE CAMPAIGN"!

Fred Thompson was another repug candidate who was too old and sick for anyone to believe he''d live through a 4 year presidency. But this bank didn''t even believe that McCain would live through the campaign! That''s a life expectency of LESS THAN 1 year!

It doesn''t inspire much confidence in McCain, does it?

Add in the fact that he''s still not right in the head after his POW years (He suffers from Stockholm syndrome. When Bush''s men said mean things about him in the last campaign, he turned right around and started licking Bush''s boots!), and you''ve just gotta hand it to the repugs for knowing how to pick ''em!

[buddhabman]

He''s a tough old dude, but there is a point where age is a real consideration. What are they going to do 4 years from now when he is 75. This is not as comfortable as running the Mormon church or family business.

It''s going to be very interesting who he picks for a VP. Jeb Bush? Rudy won''t help. No way for Romney. Liberman? That said he is going to be a prove a tough fight.

Obama is the guy to go up against McCain for the Dems.
Good analysis from -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jerome-karabel/barack-obama-the-democra_b_84379.html

[buddhabman]

He''s a tough old dude, but there is a point where age is a real consideration. What are they going to do 4 years from now when he is 75. This is not as comfortable as running the Mormon church or family business.

It''s going to be very interesting who he picks for a VP. Jeb Bush? Giuliani won''t help. No way for Romney. Liberman?

[tejasdemo]

I was laughin this mornin and I am still laughin.