McHenry: Obama campaigning in Dem areas

ryanteaguebeckwith — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 15:52:52 -0400

U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry said Barack Obama is only campaigning in "Democrat areas."

On a conference call this afternoon, the Cherryville Republican argued that recent rallies in Charlotte and Greensboro showed the Democratic presidential candidate was not reaching out to conservatives in North Carolina.

"He's made four visits in the last 30 days to North Carolina and not surprisingly he only made stops in Democrat areas," he said. "So much for being on the offensive in North Carolina. He's simply trying to gin up the Democrat base in Democrat counties."

Southeastern regional director Buzz Jacobs said that John McCain's campaign is "very pleased" with the state of the race in North Carolina right now, arguing that "rural conservatives" would not vote for Obama because of his stances on talks with rogue foreign leaders and taxes.

He said McCain is following the "Bush 2004 model," but they are "tweaking it a little bit to improve it."

When asked, campaign staffers on the call said they did not know yet whether McCain or his running mate, Sarah Palin, would visit North Carolina before Election Day.

It was the second conference call by McHenry for the McCain campaign in the general election.