Jim Dyke was just named Rudy Giuliani’s Senior Communication Advisor this week. Before joining the Giuliani Campaign, Dyke served as the Communications Director for the RNC during the 2004 cycle. A recent transplant to South Carolina, Dyke currently resides in Charleston, SC. I interviewed him yesterday and discussed a number of issues surrounding this election.

 We started by talking about how Giuliani has been described as pro-choice, a supporter of gay marriage, and pro-gun control and whether he was conservative enough to win the Republican Primary. Dyke was quick to say “[Rudy] is the Republican candidate in this election because of a number of factors.” He then pointed out Giuliani’s commitment to reduce crime, keep taxes low, and taking on the welfare system citing “This is a man who is known for going into the liberal lions den in New York and providing tax relief”. Dyke also said that this election will be more about the “candidate’s governing philosophy” than one or two hot issues. He said he believes “voters will view him in a combined issue sense”

 I was curious to know how the Giuliani Campaign was handling the media buzz about Rudy passing McCain to become the new frontrunner, so I asked if he felt the campaign could ride the wave into 2008. “Nobody will be riding any waves” Dyke quickly pointed out saying “Poll numbers are going to go up and down over the next year.” I then asked if thought the polling numbers came mostly from name ID. Dyke said, “There is a misperception that the only thing people know about Rudy is 9/11. Voters are smart and get down to the facts.”

 Recently many members of the media have been wondering what happened to Maverick McCain of 2000. The media is now largely viewing McCain as the establishment candidate, and many experts are now saying that this is the year a “maverick” could take the nomination. Since Rudy has not embraced the conservative dogmas on abortion, gay marriage, and guns, I asked Jim Dyke if he thought Giuliani was this election’s “maverick”. Dyke said, “Rudy is just being himself” and “sticking to what he believes.” Dyke said that he, “wouldn’t attribute the ‘maverick’ name to Giuliani himself, but if the media chooses to give [Giuliani] that title I wouldn’t mind it.”

 The discussion then shifted to the issues Dyke felt voters would base their choice on. Dyke believes that Republicans are also concerned about the Iraq, but they are more disturbed about the execution rather than the actual war. “This is the terrorist war on us. People understand this and want somebody to lead.” I asked whether he believes that if this becomes the focus of the campaign, it will boost his candidate chances. He replied saying “Certainly Rudy is viewed favorably on national security” citing his actions after 9/11. I then asked Dyke about how he felt the public discontent with the war on terror would affect both the primary and general election. Dyke thinks Rudy can give Americans hope saying “Giuliani has already overcome a lot of “you can’t” when he took on the Mafia, people told him you can’t take down the Mob. When he said he was going to clean up Times Square people told him you will never be able to do that…people sometimes give up when they shouldn’t and start believing in stuff like an ‘acceptable amount of crime’. Despite perceptions like these Rudy believes we can address [the War on Terror].”

 Dyke spoke of other issues that would shape the Republican Primary saying, “Republicans have a different view of the role of government. A lot of these voters want more power invested in state and local government.” He also said, “People are asking what are you going to do about entitlements” adding that this could become a major issue in this election. Overall though, Dyke believes people are looking for someone “who is focused on improving people’s lives.”

 I then asked Dyke if he believed that Rudy is the Republican Candidate who has the best shot at winning the Presidency. “Rudy is certainly somebody who can win, and he can certainly hold the South.” He also pointed out that Rudy is currently leading in some polls over Hillary and Obama in the mega-electorate states of California and New York.

 This Republican Primary has seen a lot a lot of states moving up their primary dates to February 5th. Experts are currently predicting that as many as twenty-three states could hold their contest on that day. I wanted to get a sense of how the national campaigns are handling this unexpected move. “This just elevates the early primary states. The winners of these could ride the momentum through Tsunami Tuesday,” Dyke said. “At the same time you can’t ignore those other states. I think the problem many campaigns will face is they will be stretched thin because they will have to be in so many places in a short amount of time.”