[img_assist|nid=2745|title=Andrew Langer|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=210|height=179]The John McCain 2008 presidential campaign will be adding Andrew Langer to its list of volunteer staff. Langer will be coordinating Maryland's eastern shore efforts, though the campaign has not given him an official title as of yet.

Langer is the president of the Institute for Liberty and worked for the National Federation of Independent Business. He worked on former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign during the Republican primary and wrote Giuliani's small business policy.

In an interview with PolitickerMD.com, Langer, who hasn't begun working with the campaign, said that "talking about Senator McCain's story" would play a key role in selling McCain to voters in a state that widely trends Democrat. He also expressed the importance of deciphering "what change means to Barack Obama and what change means to Senator McCain."

Langer explained that part of his job will involve getting Republican Party leaders together to "strengthen and grow the apparatus," and "making the equation" between Gov. Martin O'Malley (D-Baltimore) and Obama. Langer explained that comparing "O'Malley's tax hikes" with Obama's policies would play a key role in the get-out-the-vote effort.

State GOP Executive Director Justin Ready told PolitickerMD.com that he supported the McCain campaign's decision to bring Langer on board. In a state that many observers call inevitably blue, Ready said Langer "can really appeal to a wide swath of Marylanders."