Tea Party lawmakers may take on McCain
A couple of Tea Party lawmakers are strongly considering challenging Sen. John McCain in 2016, but they wont both get in the race.
Arizona GOP Reps. Matt Salmon and David Schweikert, who are best friends on Capitol Hill, have spent recent weeks mulling over the possibility with family members, analyzing polling and keeping tabs on McCain, as he makes moves toward running for a sixth Senate term.
If Matt came to me and said he wants to pull the trigger, it would mean we would probably offer to chair his committee, Schweikert told The Hill in an interview. Nothing even close to that [has happened]. Seriously, not even that first step.
Salmon has a larger war chest than Schweikert. As of Nov. 24, 2014, Salmon had $545,000 cash on hand, while Schweikert only had $66,000. McCain, meanwhile, had $1.54 million in his campaign coffers as of Sept. 30, 2014.
Salmon and Schweikert would be among the best positioned and best known of the slew of possible primary challengers expected to run against McCain a top target of conservative activists who view him as too moderate on issues such as immigration and taxes.
McCain was met with a mix of boos, curses and cheers, when he took the stage last weekend at the Arizona Republican Partys annual meeting, and a dozen activists turned their back on the senator. But that was nicer treatment than what McCain experienced at the same meeting a year earlier, when local activists and precinct committeemen voted to censure the 78-year-old Arizona senator.
McCain has been raising campaign cash, traveling the state and aggressively moving to purge conservative foes from the state party part of the reason for the jeers last weekend.
As hes said, Sen. McCain is strongly leaning toward running for reelection, said his top spokesman, Brian Rogers. In the meantime, hes taking all the necessary steps to be in the strongest position possible when he makes a final decision.
McCain has long been at odds with the two congressmen both beat primary opponents he endorsed to win their House seats.
Salmon downplayed any talk of taking on the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee chairman and revered Vietnam War POW. Im just happy to be here and do my job, Salmon said in a recent interview at the House and Senate GOP retreat in Hershey, Pa. Im happy to be in the office Im in.
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Tea Party lawmakers may take on McCain