McCain's Golden Opportunity

Chris Rubin looks forward to wading through more phone and e-mail messages. The San Diego County volunteer for GOP presidential candidate John McCain says she logged 916 e-mail messages on the night of the Arizona senator's big win in the New Hampshire primary. Since then, the phones have been absolute bedlam.

"We have to clear our voice mail every 45 minutes," says Rubin, who sounds thrilled to be in demand for a change.

It wasn't always like this at McCain's California headquarters. Last fall, volunteers spent much of their time educating voters on their candidate's name, as well as his record. The campaign currently has only one office to cover the nation's most populous state (George W. Bush has three) and just two full-time staffers. It relies heavily on volunteers and what Rubin calls "cyber offices." Interested voters are referred to McCains Web site, which has information on the candidate's positions, his schedule, opportunities for volunteering and, of course, how to make contributions.

"It's like a bridge span being built and we walk across as we can," says Ken Khachigian, a senior McCain adviser. "It hasn't reached California yet."

But a new statewide poll by the Field Institute that shows McCain closing in on Bush may mean new construction ahead. In the past month, Bush's lead over McCain has shrunk from 40 points to 19. The campaign hopes the burst of momentum will generate more campaign funds, which McCain desperately needs.

Making an impression in media-saturated California will be much more expensive and time-consuming than in New Hampshire, where candidates could shake hundreds of hands in cozy town hall meetings. Khachigian vows that McCain wont be outspent "five to one" here, but concedes it will be hard to compete against Bushs spending power.

Now that it's boiling down to a two-man race, voters will be able to focus on the character and the records of the front-runners, says Khachigian, who ran Bob Dole's 1996 campaign in California and worked as a speechwriter and aide to Presidents Nixon, Reagan and Bush.

"We see this as an opportunity," he says. "McCain has not had a chance to put his record out there."

With 12 states holding primaries on Super Tuesday, McCain will try to spend at least six days in the Golden State over the next month. Television ads will begin within two weeks, and Spanish-language print ads are in the works. But the campaign will also have to contend with disengaged voters, who seem to have been caught unprepared for the March 7 primary (the earliest ever in the state.)

Khachigian shrugs it off: "If you can move 21 points when people aren't paying attention, just think what you can do when they are."

From her vantage point amid the ringing phones, Chris Rubin says she's witnessed a big diffeence in voter attitudes since that big night in New Hampshire. "Before, many people said 'I would love to vote for him, but he can't win.' Now they're saying, 'McCain can win.'"