With John McCain on the cusp of announcing his 2008 presidential bid, it's easy to forget there was a time when McCain was a senator but not yet a celebrity. In early 1999, though, McCain had minimal national name recognition and was an afterthought for those handicapping the Republican field, well behind George W. Bush and Elizabeth Dole.

A year later, McCain beat Bush in New Hampshire's primary by 18 points. There were many reasons for the victory, but McCain couldn't have done it without the "pure doggedness" of Mike Dennehy, recalled John Weaver, McCain's longtime chief strategist. Dennehy directed the 2000 New Hampshire campaign and built McCain's statewide grass-roots network.

Not long after New Hampshire, Bush - with deep pockets, establishment connections and shrewd strategy - eclipsed McCain and secured the 2000 Republican nomination. In 2008, McCain hopes to replicate his past New Hampshire success nationwide. With that in mind, he has named Dennehy to serve as national political director for his pending campaign. Dennehy and his family will move from Concord to Washington, D.C., tomorrow.

"After the 2000 campaign, we kept in close contact, and he's become one of my closest advisers and friends," McCain said Friday, in a phone interview from Arizona. "He's very good at politics, and he obviously - I think - can do the same job on a national scale that he's done for me in New Hampshire."

Last time, Dennehy was a young but experienced New Hampshire operative, a 16-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week organizer who turned 30 while the McCain campaign was still trying to crack double digits in the polls. Now he's a married father of two with a thriving lobbying and political-consulting firm, a 37-year-old homeowner who thought he'd sworn off the hours and travel of full-time electoral politics. But he couldn't resist the lure of McCain, whose 2000 campaign amplified Dennehy's political profile and brought him together with his wife.

"We figured, we almost owe it to John McCain to finish the crusade," Dennehy said the other day, as he prepared for movers to visit his East Concord home. Dennehy signed on with a goal of steering McCain to the White House in 2008 - and a promise that his family would return to New Hampshire afterward.

Dennehy became part of McCain's inner circle by demonstrating the qualities those close to him have long admired: perpetual good humor coupled with an intense desire to succeed. Friends and family say Dennehy blends a variety of roles and styles - skilled strategist, doting father, relentless organizer, social butterfly - in a way that few could manage, much less with a ready grin.

"He's going to bring some passion to the campaign, and we're just fortunate to have him," said Weaver, who has been McCain's political right hand for nearly a decade.

McCain and Weaver connected through former senator Phil Gramm, who ran for president in 1996. McCain served as Gramm's chairman, and Weaver was the national political director. Dennehy came on board from the office of then-Gov. Steve Merrill to act as New Hampshire director, meaning he was charged with drawing on his state contacts to develop a local organization.

Although Gramm didn't make it to the primary - he dropped out a week before the race to endorse Bob Dole - Dennehy impressed Weaver, who courted Dennehy nearly three years later when McCain was considering his first presidential run.

"I was struck then with his ability and his intuitiveness - his ability to get along with people and make critical decisions and execute them," Weaver said. "The hardest thing in this business is to find people who can actually do things. A lot of people want to be strategists, but very few can actually execute. And Mike is one of those people."

To wit: In 1999, most of the seasoned campaign workers in New Hampshire aligned with Bush or Dole, and Dennehy had to build a staff from political newcomers. He hired Sarah Crawford as one of a handful of regional field directors; at the time, she was a new college graduate with a degree in history and no political experience. He handed her a list of 50 towns and told her to get to work. "But what do I do?" Crawford asked him. "Win," Dennehy told her. (next page »)