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May 15, 2008
Categories: John McCain

McCain ousts adviser, releases conflict policy

My story, just posted on Politico:

John McCain's campaign asked a prominent Republican consultant, Craig Shirley, to leave his official campaign role Thursday after a Politico inquiry about Shirley's dual role consulting for the campaign and for an independent "527" group opposing the Democratic presidential candidates. The campaign also released a new conflict of interest policy barring such arrangements.

Shirley, a conservative public relations veteran, doubled as a consultant to McCain and to the group Stop Her Now, a 527 group barred from coordinating its activities with presidential campaigns. He is not currently on the McCain campaign’s payroll, but would also step down from his role on McCain’s Virginia Leadership Team, a McCain spokesman, Brian Rogers, said.

"If you're working for a 527 involved in the presidential race, you won't have a named role in our campaign,” said Rogers.

Under the new policy, a copy of which was provided to Politico, “no person with a McCain Campaign title or position may participate in a 527 or other independent entity that makes public communications that support or oppose any presidential candidate.”

Shirley’s firm, Shirley & Bannister Associates, was paid more than $22,000 by McCain for work this February and March to win conservative support. Stop Her Now has paid the firm more than $155,000 since 2007 for public relations work.

The details of the policy, which requires McCain's staff to undergo a new round of vetting, are also worth a look. Details after the jump.

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.

Davis’s directive has five points:

-That McCain aides may not be registered lobbyists or foreign agents, or make money from those practices.

-That volunteers must disclose their status as lobbyists or foreign agents, and may not participate in making policy on the areas they lobby, or lobby McCain or his staff.

-That “no person with a McCain Campaign title or position may participate in a 527 or other independent entity that makes public communications that support or oppose any presidential candidate.”

-No McCain campaign vendor may work with a 527 or independent group without a pre-approved legal “firewall.”

-As McCain has said before, “anyone serving in a McCain Administration must commit not to lobby the Administration during his presidency.”

The memo establishes a new vetting process, requiring campaign aides to fill out a questionnaire on their status, and to turn in proof that they’ve terminated outside contracts over to the campaign legal department.