MINNEAPOLIS--New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley issued a statement on the last night of the Republican National Convention arguing that U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is not the type of maverick McCain says he is.

"Sen. John McCain cannot run from his record," Buckley said in a statement. "He certainly has not been a maverick during the last eight years when it came to supporting the failed policies of the Bush administration. He has marched in lock step with George Bush as he has erased the budget surplus, led us into a costly and unnecessary war, and demonstrated a complete misunderstanding of the economic realities faced by middle class families."

Buckley also said that McCain would be a third Bush term.
 
"It has been said before, but it bears repeating: electing John McCain will be the same as sending George Bush to the White House for a third term, and the people of New Hampshire just cannot afford for that to happen."