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Mike Duncan, chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), is launching a swing-state tour on Wednesday with officials from John McCain’s campaign in an effort to inspect and discuss the Arizona senator’s national infrastructure. Duncan and the McCain aides are set to visit at least seven “target states” over the next three weeks on what the RNC is calling the “Victory 2008 Tour,” which will include discussions about party registration, microtargeting, get-out-the-vote operations and fundraising efforts, according to an RNC official. The tour will include visits to Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Florida and, perhaps surprisingly, North Carolina, a state that has been reliably Republican in recent elections but one that Democratic candidate Barack Obama has indicated he will contest. During the trip Duncan; Mike DuHaime, McCain’s political director and deputy campaign manager; Rich Beeson, the RNC’s political director; and Bill Steiner, director of RNC strategy, will meet with state and local officials as well as “on the ground” officials with the McCain campaign and the RNC. The RNC official noted that the RNC and the campaign have built an infrastructure in “nearly” 20 target states, which the official said includes 122 McCain and Victory offices. Obama’s campaign has said it is planning to run a 50-state strategy, but Republican officials have in recent days questioned the wisdom of the costs of running such a strategy. |
