Members of John McCain's campaign team:

South Carolina State Director Trey Walker:

-- Investigated For Election Fraud; Admitted Sending Misleading Emails.

Trey Walker, recently hired by John McCain to lead McCain's South Carolina campaign, was "under investigation for election fraud because of his role in helping [Henry] McMaster" win the AG election while he was employed by Richard Quinn's firm, Richard Quinn & Associates. The investigation of Walker "center[ed] on Walker's admitted misrepresentation of an e-mail critical of McMaster's chief opponent, Charleston lawyer Larry Richter...Walker acknowledge[d] he circulated a newspaper article to 2,300 party activists on the eve of the June 11 primary. The article from The State reported that Richter once accepted $55,000 in cash from a man later convicted of drug trafficking. But Walker made it appear the article came from Richter's political strategist, Rod Shealy." [CNN, 1/8/07; The State, 7/12/02; 1/24/03; 11/11/03; 11/18/03; 2/14/04]

-- Praised Bush Tactic Of "Demonizing" McCain In South Carolina.

In the aftermath of the 2000 election, Trey Walker, who had been McCain's national field director and also was employed by McCain's top South Carolina advisor Richard Quinn, endorsed the tactics of the Bush campaign in South Carolina, where, according to Walker, "They made a conscientious effort to demonize John McCain among conservatives[.]" Walker said approvingly of the tactics, "you've got to give them credit. Their backs were against the wall...The means justified the end." The tactics employed by the Bush campaign included "independent attack ads, phone calls, rumor and e-mail" to "portray McCain as an ideological fraud," according to the State newspaper of Columbia. At the time of the negative campaigning, Walker had remarked of the tactics, "We are being absolutely carpet-bombed by the most vicious stuff I've ever seen[.]" [The State, 12/14/00; New York Post, 2/16/00; The State, 1/24/03]

South Carolina Spokesman Richard Quinn:

-- Criticized the MLK Holiday as "Vitriolic and Profane."

Richard Quinn, identified as "McCain's South Carolina spokesman" as recently as December of 2005, was also a South Carolina "strategist" for McCain in the 2000 campaign. [Spartanburg Herald-Journal, 12/23/05; Vanity Fair, 11/04] McCain has defended Quinn as being "highly respected" and a "fine man." [Associated Press, 2/18/00; New York Times, 2/8/00] In a 1983 column Quinn wrote, "King Day should have been rejected because its purpose is vitriolic and profane. By celebrating King as the incarnation of all they admire, they [black leaders] have chosen to glorify the histrionic rather than the heroic and by inference they spurned the brightest and the best among their own race...Ignoring the real heroes in our nation's life, the blacks have chosen a man who represents not their emancipation, not their sacrifices and bravery in service to their country; rather, they have chosen a man whose role in history was to lead his people into a perpetual dependence on the welfare state, a terrible bondage of body and soul. [Partisan View, Southern Partisan, Fall, 1983] Quinn has also advocated electing David Duke, and sold T-Shirts through his magazine celebrating Abraham Lincoln's assassination. [Partisan View, Southern Partisan, Winter, 1989, PFAW Release, 2/17/00]

I am not permitted to link to the whole article because I located it through ProQuest, a subscription database. The license governing its use has a redistribution clause that forbids public posting.

I can't reproduce the whole thing for the same reason. But here is the citation:

"DNC: No Negotiation, McCain's Given Up on His Principles". (5 February 2007). PR Newswire. Retrieved October 19, 2008, from Regional News-Northeast database. (Document ID: 1210900181).