Two Of McCain's Religion-outreach Aides Quit

Two former aides hired to spearhead religious outreach for presidential candidate John McCain say that they were virtually ignored by the campaign and that McCain's top campaign strategists are intent on winning votes of religious voters without having to develop serious ties to faith communities.

The aides, who were fired in early April after roughly three months on the job, said the campaign staff declined to return scores of their phone calls and E-mail messages, denied them access to leaders of the McCain campaign, and pressed them to collect church directories--a controversial tactic--as the centerpiece of a strategy to woo "values" voters.

"In the end, you came away with the strong sense that they had contempt for the faith-based community," says Marlene Elwell, one of those fired staffers. Elwell, a prominent Christian-right activist, was hired by McCain in December 2005 to be national director of his "Americans of Faith" coalition. "The way we were being treated it was as if we had leprosy."

The McCain campaign said the aides' dismissals were performance-related and were part of a broader staff reshuffling earlier this spring that grew from weaker-than-expected fundraising.

"We have the opposite of contempt--we have a great deal of affection for that [faith] community and a desire to help them understand that [McCain] is a good candidate for them," says Bob Heckman, senior consultant for the McCain campaign on conservative outreach.

But the other fired staffer, Judy Haynes--a former top Christian Coalition official hired to work under Elwell--had an assessment similar to Elwell's, saying in a separate interview that the campaign exhibited "a contempt for Christians."

Both former McCain aides stressed that they still had respect for the Arizona senator, saying it was his top staff who seemed to take a cynical view of religious outreach. "I have a great deal of respect for John McCain and what he has done for the country," says Elwell. "He's given his whole life to his country, first through service in the military, by being a prisoner of war, and then giving back with public service."

After failing to get in touch with McCain's top staffers after she was dismissed from the campaign in April, Elwell received a call from McCain himself last week. The senator told Elwell he would look into her grievances and get back to her.

By Dan Gilgoff