McCain to seek votes Republicans often ignore

By David Wiessler

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidate John McCain plans a wide-ranging campaign that would go after voters often ignored by his Republican party, which in the past has focused on getting conservatives to the polls.

"We need to go all over America ... (and) compete hard in every section of the country," McCain, the party's presumptive nominee, said on "Fox News Sunday" in an interview taped on Friday.

McCain, who still has not won over many conservatives, made clear he planned a broader campaign than those waged by President George W. Bush when he faces either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton as the Democratic candidate in the November election.

The Arizona senator said he would go after votes of blacks and Hispanics, two traditionally strong Democratic blocs, as well as independents and young voters who have been attracted to the Democratic campaigns this year.

"I'm not sure that the old red state, blue state scenario that prevailed for the last several elections works," McCain said, referring to the way television networks depict Republican states as red and Democratic states as blue on election night.

"I think most of these states that we have either red or blue are going to be up for grabs."

As an example he promised a fight for California which has become heavily Democratic over the past two decades and has often been written off by Republicans.

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