I’m also at a loss on this one. Ward appeared to be making a good impression on conservatives, with his military and intelligence background. It was said that his grass-roots efforts made a good impression. I never heard that he’d had some kind of McCain connection.
I had seen Ward referred to as formerly working for John McCain, and assumed that he was a staffer in Washington, but all I have been able to find is that he was McCain’s Nevada state chairman in 2008.
BTW, I just read an article about ex-Congressman Sali (who lost the seat last year) supposedly considering running again, and the article had this very interesting paragraph about Vaughn Ward’s candidacy:
““The Ward campaign seems to be generating support from a lot of the more moderate factions of the party,” the source said. “That partially explains why Raul jumped in the race. Conservatives viewed there being a void.””
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/71957-former-rep-sali-weighing-options-in-minnick-race