Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign accused GOP rival John McCain Tuesday of snubbing staunch Republicans by not showing up at events sponsored by conservative activists.
“I think conservative activists would agree that their ideas and their hard work deserve more than a candidate’s avoidance,” Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said. “You can’t win a jury trial unless you make your case to the jury. Anyone who is seeking to lead conservatives and lead our party ought to be able to, at the very least, show up and make their case.”
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McCain, R-Ariz., declined an invitation to attend the Club for Growth’s annual economic conference, which begins later this month in Florida. Over the last two months, the Arizona senator has also skipped events sponsored by the Conservative Political Action Conference, the Heritage Foundation and National Review magazine.
McCain will visit Iraq during the Club for Growth meeting and attended an economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, during the National Review function in Washington in January. During this month’s CPAC gathering in Washington, McCain attended a major fundraiser in Phoenix.
“Conservative values are something that you believe, not a meeting that you attend,” McCain spokesman Matt David said. “Are we going to take some flak for not attending some of these? Yeah, but at the same time, it is a fair point to say that we’re conservative. Look at our record.”
It was a veiled reference to Romney’s switch on the abortion issue from pro-choice to pro-life and candidate Rudy Giuliani’s liberal social positions. Both Republicans have attended many of the meetings that McCain skipped.
“You’ve got Romney trying to go out there and make his case, when clearly his record says something completely different,” David said. “At least Giuliani, at the end of the day, isn’t trying to switch positions. But if you look at his CPAC speech, it’s not like he talked about social conservative issues.”
David said McCain attended last month’s National Religious Broadcasters convention in Florida. And last year, he gave the commencement address at the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s conservative Liberty University in Virginia.
“So there are events that we’re going to go to,” David said. “We feel very good about where we’re going to be at with conservatives, based on the senator’s consistent conservative record.”
