McCain Team Reunites — for Democrat-Turned-Independent in Mass.

ABC News' Rick Klein reports: Key members of Sen. John McCain's original campaign brain trust are reuniting in an unlikely place: Massachusetts, where they've signed on to the bid of a Democrat-turned independent who's running for governor. Four former top McCain staffers — John Weaver, Mark Salter, John Yob, and Mike Dennehy — have started working for Tim Cahill’s gubernatorial campaign, the campaign announced today. Cahill, the Massachusetts state treasurer, won two terms as a Democrat but is now running as an independent candidate for governor. He’s taking on Gov. Deval Patrick, D-Mass., and the likely Republican candidate, Charles Baker. For Cahill, it creates an unusual partnership of campaign minds that includes Democratic strategist Tad Devine, the former top adviser to the Al Gore and John Kerry presidential campaigns. Devine’s media consulting firm is handling the campaign’s advertising strategy, and Devine is serving in a senior advisory role to Cahill. “We really wanted to hammer home that independent message, and you can’t do that in a better way than to have a Democratic consultant and a Republican consultant,” said campaign spokeswoman Amy Birmingham. The McCain connection came through Cahill’s running made, Paul Loscocco, a former Republican state Representative who supported McCain, R-Ariz., back in his 2000 campaign, particularly in the New Hampshire primaries. A poll taken last month showed a three-way jumble in the race for governor, with Cahill running roughly even with Baker, and both within striking distance of Patrick. In a statement, Weaver argued that Massachusetts is primed for a third-party candidacy, particularly with both major parties likely to nominate “insiders.” “Their record on the issues and the mathematical breakdown of a three-way race against a fiscal conservative like Tim Cahill literally makes them unelectable,” Weaver said. “As I last recalled, the original 'tea party' occurred here in Massachusetts. I find working men and women here are pretty opposed to self anointment and thus not likely to take to 'King Charlie' [Baker] and 'Prince Richard' [Tisei, Baker's running mate] and their big spending ways. They are the tax and spend ticket. Governor Patrick represents complete and total mismanagement while Tim and Paul reflect the values of the working men and women of the Bay State.”