Analysis: McCain fundraiser may not be best for McMaster

Politics are full of juxtapositions that would make a normal person do a double-take. Such is the issue with Sen. John McCain hosting a fundraiser for Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster.

The event, which took place in Washington at The Monocle on Tuesday, places McCain at odds with his own beliefs, or so it seems. Contributions, asked to be at least $500, were to be given to the McMaster for Attorney General account. Even the campaign’s online mouthpiece makes the joke that the checks should be signed to McMaster for Governor.

But, there’s the rub. McMaster is raising money for his gubernatorial campaign without having to announce, which is a bit of a campaign finance shell game, something one would think that McCain, the champion of campaign finance reform, would denounce. According to a conversation Wolfe Reports had with the State Ethics Commission a while back, the attorney general can transfer his current account to a gubernatorial account without a problem.

There is also the interesting fact that the unannounced McMaster campaign has been hammering Rep. Gresham Barrett on his vote on last year’s stimulus bill, when if McCain hadn’t gone back to DC to whip for President George W. Bush and his plan, the bill would have been killed by Congressional conservatives.

So, it appears that either one man or the other is compromising his beliefs to bring in some large DC dollars. And, that will not play well when the gubernatorial campaign begins in earnest, which looks like it will be soon.

As of the last disclosure report, McMaster has $778,426.43 in his campaign account.