House and Senate Career of John Mc Cain, Until 2000 - Entry Into Politics and 1982 House Campaign

Entry Into Politics and 1982 House Campaign

Having moved to Phoenix in March 1981, McCain went to work for Hensley & Co., his new father-in-law Jim Hensley's large Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship, as Vice President of Public Relations. McCain had little interest in the beer business itself, instead preferring to talk to colleagues about current events. In carrying out his job, he was able to gain political support among the local business community, meeting powerful figures such as banker Charles Keating, Jr., real estate developer Fife Symington III, newspaper publisher Darrow "Duke" Tully, and locally-well-known auto dealer Lou Grubb, all the while looking for an electoral opportunity.

McCain's original plan had been to run for a new U.S. House of Representatives seat from Arizona, created by reapportionment following the 1980 census, but that turned out to be too far from Phoenix. Then John Jacob Rhodes, Jr., the longtime Republican congressman from Arizona's 1st congressional district, announced his retirement in January 1982. This seat encompassed parts of the Phoenix metropolitan area and was very close to where the McCains lived; his wife Cindy McCain bought a house in the district the same day as Rhodes' announcement. Rhodes suggested that McCain first run for the Arizona Legislature to gain more experience, but McCain had no interest in slowly working his way up.

McCain ran for the seat as a Republican, and formally announced his candidacy in late March 1982. He faced three candidates in the Republican nomination process, all of whom had entered the race before him: Arizona State Senator Jim Mack, Arizona State Representative Donna Carlson-West, and veterinarian and active civic figure Ray Russell. The others were all given a good chance to win the primary election; McCain ranked at best third in early polls.

During the spring and the 110°F heat of the Phoenix summer, McCain and his wife campaigned door-to-door six hours a day, six days a week. The exhausting schedule combined with his hair color led to him being nicknamed "The White Tornado". He was assisted by George "Bud" Day, his former POW cellmate, and Day's wife, who were familiar with legal and procedural matters. His supporters were dubbed "McCain's navy", and he stressed his familiarity with "the ways of Washington" and how his role as Navy Senate liaison had helped bring a defense contract to the district. Still, as a newcomer to the state, McCain was hit with repeated charges of being a carpetbagger. Finally, at a candidates forum, he gave a famous refutation to a voter making the charge:

Listen, pal. I spent 22 years in the Navy. My father was in the Navy. My grandfather was in the Navy. We in the military service tend to move a lot. We have to live in all parts of the country, all parts of the world. I wish I could have had the luxury, like you, of growing up and living and spending my entire life in a nice place like the First District of Arizona, but I was doing other things. As a matter of fact, when I think about it now, the place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi.

Phoenix Gazette columnist John Kolbe would later label this "the most devastating response to a potentially troublesome political issue I've ever heard."

McCain's campaign fell into early debt; his wife began loaning him tens of thousands of dollars to keep it alive. Donations also came in from Jim Hensley and other Hensley & Co. executives, but the amounts grew large enough that the Federal Election Commission forced some of it to be returned. By the close of the primary, McCain was able to outspend his opponents; more of than half of his primary expenditures were financed by the eventual $167,000 that his wife lent to the campaign. (The McCains had made a prenuptial agreement that kept most of her family's assets under her name; they would always keep their finances apart and file separate income tax returns. In the end, $93,000 of the 1982 loan would be forgiven.) The spending advantage made itself felt in television advertising, including a highly effective two-minute mini-documentary that presented him as new leader for Arizona with a record of service to the country. Rival Mack later called that ad the best political commercial he had ever seen.

McCain was endorsed by Senator John Tower, a friend and mentor from his liaison stint who in turn got McCain the endorsement of former Arizona Governor and Senator Paul Fannin. Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, the state's most powerful political figure, was officially neutral in the race, but many of his aides were working for McCain's opponents. Goldwater himself was said to view McCain as a political opportunist, despite admiring his military service. Late in the race, Goldwater appeared to make a public statement critical of McCain, but Tower persuaded Goldwater not to confirm it to reporters and the damage was limited. McCain benefited from the support of Duke Tully's The Arizona Republic, the state's most powerful newspaper.

McCain won the highly contested primary election on September 7, 1982, getting 32 percent of the vote compared to Russell's 26 percent, Mack's 22 percent, and Carlson-West's 20 percent. He went on to easily win the general election in the heavily Republican district two months later, defeating Democrat William E. Hergarty by a 66 percent to 31 percent margin.