McCain Aides' Foreign Work Raises Eyebrows

The GOP nominee's campaign includes lobbyists and consultants who worked for foreign clients, including one who did work for the pro-Russian faction in Ukraine's 2006 elections.

Saturday, Oct. 11, 2008
by Peter H. Stone
The National Journal

To most political junkies, the name Christian Ferry doesn't mean much, even though he is John McCain's deputy campaign manager.

But Ferry -- whose boss is Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager and a longtime GOP lobbyist -- has an intriguing background in foreign consulting that happens to involve Davis.

Before joining the McCain campaign in early 2007, Ferry worked for Davis Manafort, the lobbying and consulting firm founded by Davis and Paul Manafort. Starting as a driver for Davis, Ferry worked his way up and was assigned key responsibilities for some of the firm's foreign clients. They included a political party in Montenegro and a political leader in Ukraine, both backed by wealthy businessmen and oligarchs who sought to sway the outcome of elections in 2006 in those two nations.

According to two sources familiar with the McCain campaign, Ferry spoke on several occasions of traveling in 2005 and 2006 to the two countries to provide advice on Western-style election techniques such as polling and advertising. Ferry's office at McCain campaign headquarters was adorned with newspaper clippings and other memorabilia from both overseas electoral efforts, according to the sources.

In Montenegro, Davis Manafort helped push a referendum on independence from Serbia that narrowly passed by popular vote in May 2006. In Ukraine, Ferry was part of a Davis Manafort team that advised Victor Yanukovich, the country's then-prime minister, whose pro-Russian party made gains in the 2006 parliamentary elections. (In 2004, Yanukovich lost to the U.S.-backed candidate, Victor Yushchenko, in a hotly contested presidential race.)

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