McCain Not Completely Scrapping Regional Manager System

Steve Schmidt, the newly installed senior adviser for John McCain's presidential bid, is moving quickly to strengthen the power of the operation's national headquarters by hiring a political director and a field director. Contrary to published reports, however, Schmidt will not entirely scrap the regional campaign manager idea put in place by former Campaign Manager Rick Davis.

Schmidt announced these moves in a memo to the 11 regional campaign managers this morning, a memo obtained by The Fix.

Of the decision to hire a national political director and field director, Schmidt writes: "These individuals will work with all of you and with [deputy campaign manager] Christian Ferry to increase our capacity to reach out to voters, build coalitions, identify supporters, and ultimately turn them out to the polls on November 4. We will be enhancing our headquarters political capacity to provide additional resources to you and your regions."

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