McCain rejects Secret Service protection

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) may be the presumptive GOP nominee for president, but, by his own wishes, he is not being protected by the Secret Service.

“He has not requested protection,” Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan told a congressional subcommittee this morning. “We have no involvement at this point.”

{mosads}In opting not to take the protection, McCain is following through on plans he outlined to reporters late last year on his Straight Talk Express campaign bus.

Members of the House Appropriations Homeland Security subcommittee were surprised by Sullivan’s revelation. Sullivan said his agency had been in contact with McCain’s staff. But a candidate has no legal requirement to take protection.

By contrast, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) on May 3, 2007, became the earliest presidential candidate to receive protection outside of his chief rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), who already received protection by virtue of being a former first lady.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) began receiving protection in February 2004 during his bid for the presidency.

McCain also rejected Secret Service protection in 2000, after winning the New Hampshire primary. But, according to last year’s comments, the senator said he wants to go further, rejecting the massive security apparatus should he become president.

McCain has acknowledged that a modern American president must have some sort of protection, but he said he would like to pare down the size of motorcades that he has noted can tie up traffic in a large American city.

A hearing Thursday before the Homeland Security panel gave some of the numbers involved in that security apparatus.

Even without protecting McCain, the 2008 campaign is shaping up as the costliest in Secret Service history. The agency has screened 550,000 people through metal detectors, and Sullivan said agents are seeing the size crowds now they would expect to see in October.

As of Feb. 29, 2008, the Secret Service had provided security at 900 presidential campaign events. For Obama, the agency provided coverage for 303 protection days and 444 protective visits.   

For Clinton, the agency provided coverage for 267 protections days and 418 protective visits. The current cost per day of protecting a candidate is about $38,000 for the agency. Sullivan expects that to rise to the agency’s estimate of $44,000 per day by the end of the campaign.