McCain campaign targeting Colorado women, suburbanites, Hispanics

John McCain's presidential campaign will be focusing on suburban, female and Hispanic voters - among others -- in Colorado during the final two months of the race, McCain's national political director told reporters Tuesday.

"In a race that's going to be as close as Colorado's going to be, I think you can leave no voter unturned," said Mike DuHaime during a conference call. "For us to win Colorado, a state that's going to be close, we're going to need to have great turnout as we've had in the past, we're going to need to do very well among suburban voters, very well among women voters who  - especially some that were Hillary Clinton supporters who feel that Senator (Barack) Obama passed over Hillary Clinton for (U.S. Sen. Joe Biden,) someone who is out of the old boys' network in Washington."

DuHaime also said the McCain campaign is "aggressively working to earn as many votes as we can" from Hispanic voters in Colorado.

While he conceded that Democrats have made large political strides in Colorado during the past few years, DuHaime said Obama differs from successful Democrats such as Gov. Bill Ritter and U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Denver).

"Democrats who've been successful on the statewide level over the past few years were folks didn't have voting records and ran very much as moderates or centrists," DuHaime said. "And Senator Obama has a voting record. It is not one that I believe is in the mainstream of Colorado voters."

Obama campaign spokesperson Matt Chandler shot back in an e-mail that “Westerners approach politics differently, looking for pragmatism in candidates, not ideology; conviction, not political calculation. Barack Obama is that candidate.

"We have a strong operation on the ground because we have the support of not only Democrats in Colorado, but also Independents and Republicans," Chandler said in the e-mail. "Voters here know that John McCain is only offering them four more years of failed the Bush policies that have left Colorado’s families struggling to get by."