Sen. McCain

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PHOENIX — The story about John McCain's struggle to win over conservative voters has now been told at length on the pages of every major newspaper and magazine in the country.

But in North Phoenix on Tuesday night there was a small but significant sign that maybe, just maybe, things might not be as bad for McCain as everyone has opined.

Tom DeLay — the former House majority leader who once said that if McCain was the nominee, "I might have to sit this one out" — dropped in between fundraisers.

He told Republicans at a meeting in McCain's home Arizona Legislative District 11 that he'll support the senator for president if he secures the nomination. And that's become more of a "when" than an "if."

"The DeLay comment reinforces that McCain's the nominee and we need to support him. Period," said Alberto Gutier, a GOP activist and longtime McCain backer.

A number of conservative activists here have not been McCain's biggest fans, and the senator's Arizona supporters feel their stunts to embarrass him have garnered an inordinate amount of national media attention.

Under the leadership of GOP District 11 Chairman Rob Haney, the group has introduced resolutions censuring the senator and declaring that it will not support him because of his work on comprehensive immigration and campaign-finance reform.

Haney and others remain skeptical of McCain, and DeLay's gesture of lukewarm support didn't smooth things over completely. But there is an openness.

Arizona Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen, who once declared, "I'm not a McCainiac," has also warmed up. Pullen hasn't been secret about his lack of interest in McCain.

While party leaders in states with homegrown candidates in this year's presidential primary — New York, Arkansas and Illinois — made their support for candidates known, Pullen stayed silent until McCain had a clear path to the nomination.

"I think it's the best possible situation to have," Pullen said in an interview on the night of the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday votes, as McCain swept critical states. "I feel confident that we'll win in Arizona with Sen. McCain at the top of the ticket. I think it translates very well for Republicans on the ballot in Arizona."

And Pullen dismissed the idea that conservatives — like himself — won't support McCain in November.

"Eighty percent of what John McCain does, we all agree with," he said. "You name a candidate where everybody agrees with everything that candidate says or does, and I'll show you someone who never won anything."

Others in the GOP's "big tent" are signing on, too — what some hope to be an early indication that movement conservatives are not going to follow the lead of right-wing personalities such as Ann Coulter (she's vowed to vote for Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton if McCain is on the ballot).

Asked if he'll support McCain, Jason Rose, a prominent Phoenix-area public-relations consultant who led Mitt Romney's Arizona efforts, said, "The answer is yes, and hell yes."

But he still worries that McCain will have problems exciting the base, particularly as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee refuses to drop out.

"The combination of a lack of enthusiasm among conservatives, as well as the libertarian wing of the party, is highly problematic for Sen. McCain," Rose said. "Gov. Huckabee's continued candidacy is like picking at a scab. The reality of what he's doing is to seriously infringe on John McCain's ability — sooner rather than later — to consolidate the Republican base."

Part of the problem may be out of McCain's hands. Voter turnout figures show that the Democratic takeover of Congress in 2006 had a lot to do with low morale in the GOP.

The latest national polling shows things haven't changed, with 79 percent of Democrats and Democrat leaners saying they are more enthusiastic about this election than previous ones. Only 44 percent of Republicans and GOP leaners feel that way.

Results from Tuesday's primaries in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia further illuminate McCain's dilemma. While McCain won those races, Huckabee ran up margins of 43 percent to McCain's 30 percent in Maryland and 61 percent to 25 percent in Virginia among voters who said that McCain was not conservative enough.

"If Huckabee were not in the race, the level of discontent would be the same, it just wouldn't be as visible," said William Galston, a senior fellow at the D.C.-based Brookings Institution think tank. "The real problem Sen. McCain has with conservatives is Sen. McCain."

Still, there's always a coming-home effect in closely fought primaries, experts say.

And just a week after cementing himself as the clear front-runner, McCain may be making inroads.

If anyone in elected office in Arizona is a "movement conservative," it's state Sen. Jack Harper, chairman of Huckabee's Arizona committee. Harper is no politically correct wordsmith — just last month he described Democrats as "people who would burn American flags in front of American soldiers and call that free speech."

Harper says McCain will have his full support in November.

"We battle in the primary, but whoever wins, we come together and support in the general election," Harper said. "Sen. McCain has always voted pro-life. He's mostly voted in favor of gun rights. So, I can see where he greatly differs from the two Democrat Party candidates — there's a clear difference."