McCain tells Md. Republicans: 'I know how to win wars'

Ticket sales for fundraiser in city total $1 million

At the fundraiser, McCain acknowledged former Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele and said the two had been traveling together. Steele regularly appears on cable television "trying to defend me," McCain said, adding: "Your reward will be in heaven, not here on earth."

McCain was greeted at the airport by several Maryland supporters approved by the campaign, including Don Murphy, a lobbyist and former state lawmaker from Catonsville. Murphy has been named chairman of the Maryland delegation at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.

Murphy carried a sign spelling out McCain's name in the code used by McCain and other prisoners of war to communicate by tapping on their cell walls.

McCain autographed the sign and "tapped out his name in code" before getting in a car to drive to the event, Murphy said.

Union demonstrators gathered yesterday outside the Light Street office tower where the McCain fundraiser was held.

"Get out of Maryland. We don't want you here," said Mortimes Sellers of Baltimore, representing the Laborers' International Union of North America.

State Democratic leaders and union officials have used the fundraising stop as an opportunity to criticize McCain's record on children's health care and other issues.

"His record just isn't there," said Joe Flynn, national vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees.

[e-mail]