McCain loses more campaign staffers but says he’s confident about candidacy

Sen. John McCain lost his communications team and aides in two key states Monday, as staff turmoil continued to roil the campaign of the former Republican presidential front-runner.

Stumping in Silicon Valley, the Arizonan professed not to worry, saying he was certain his candidacy would rebound once voters started playing closer attention this fall to the campaign.

“I’m very comfortable with where we are and how we’re doing,” McCain told reporters, after a lunchtime question-and-answer session (hosted by the Churchill Club in Santa Clara) at which he spent much of his time defending his unpopular stand on the Iraq war. “I can out-campaign anyone in both the primary and the general election.”

Still, the exodus raised new doubts about McCain’s political viability, as his campaign not only bleeds staff but fights financial insolvency. After raising $25 million in the first six months of the year -- a fraction of what he had planned -- McCain has $3.2 million in the bank and $1.8 million in debt.

The latest round of resignations was not altogether unexpected; many of the departed were associates or allies of Terry Nelson and John Weaver, the two McCain strategists who left the campaign last week in a conflict over strategy and personalities. Those quitting Monday included Brian Jones, the campaign’s communications director, his deputies Matt Paul and Danny Diaz and press secretaries in Iowa and South Carolina. Those two states and New Hampshire are where McCain said he would make his campaign’s last stand.

“It’s not an acrimonious departure,” said Jones, speaking from McCain headquarters in suburban Washington, noting that he and others would stay on the job a short while to ease the transition. “It’s unfortunate this had to happen. But truth be told, at this point in the campaign the senator doesn’t need a full-service press operation.”

McCain has said he plans to devote the rest of his primary campaign to small gatherings and town-hall-style meetings like the one held by the nonpartisan Churchill Club.

For more than an hour, McCain fielded questions in the freewheeling, quip-filled style that captivated audiences in his 2000 run for president. He called for technological innovation and free-market steps to address global warming, assailed runaway spending in Washington, and said diplomacy and economic sanctions were the best way to rein in a hostile Iran.

The reception from the crowd of about 250 was friendly when McCain called for bipartisanship to address issues such as trade and immigration. But the enthusiasm faded and the ballroom fell silent when he reiterated his support for President Bush’s approach to Iraq.

“I do believe the new strategy is working,” McCain said, adding that a withdrawal of U.S. troops would mean “genocide and catastrophe.”

Asked about his campaign’s recent troubles, McCain said his operation had been “too large ... too bureaucratic” but the problem was fixed and he was moving on.

“I’m confident we’ll do just fine,” he told the audience.

mark.barabak@latimes.com