Is John McCain Good for Business?

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Health maintenance organizations have also tangled with McCain, who once joined forces with Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) and John Edwards (D-S.C.) to push for new regulations on HMOs. And many corporate leaders felt the campaign finance reform law that McCain co-sponsored with Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) was a threat to freedom of speech, since it limited large "soft money" donations to political parties.

Perhaps McCain's most high-profile fight with an individual company was his years-long opposition to a $30 billion deal that would have allowed Boeing (BA) to lease 100 aerial refueling tankers to the U.S. Air Force. During an investigation led from his perch as Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, McCain uncovered evidence that led to guilty pleas from a high-level Air Force procurement officer and Boeing's then-chief financial officer, all of which badly embarrassed the aviation giant. Boeing officials declined to speak about McCain's campaign-trail successes, citing a policy of not commenting on Presidential candidates.

Will the Money Follow?

That long history of sparring with industry may be one reason why Romney bested McCain in corporate fundraising in 2007. According to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics, both men depended heavily on business donors: They made up 84% of Romney's 2007 support and 78% of McCain's, but Romney heavily outpaced McCain in total dollars from business, raking in more than $35 million, compared to McCain's haul just shy of $21 million.

Romney also raised more money than McCain in nearly every business sector, including agribusiness, communications and electronics, construction, finance, health, and transportation, according to the same analysis. The only two sectors in which McCain had an edge were defense, where his vocal support of the Iraq war surge has surely had an impact—and lawyers and lobbyists, from which group McCain's long years in Washington have given him a deep Rolodex of names. Corporate donors are famously pragmatic, and their financial backing of Romney may have been a reflection of the state of play of the campaign in 2007—when McCain had been all but given up for political dead, and Romney appeared to have a strong chance at the GOP nomination. Now that equation seems to have flipped, and corporate financial support may flip too.

And compared to a Democrat, many business leaders will overwhelmingly prefer McCain: in its most recent Senate rankings, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce gave McCain an 80% favorable rating, compared with Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) at 67% and Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) at 55%. The Chamber did not rate Romney, who was not in the Senate. McCain's backers speak of a candidate who they say is a perfect match for the times. They tick off a litany of pro-business positions including McCain's support for low taxes, research and development tax credits for companies, increasing trade and globalization, increased availability of highly skilled workers through immigration, and boosting education to create a competitive American workforce.

"That's an agenda that's good for the American people, and the agents of that agenda will be the businesses of America," says McCain's senior domestic policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin. "He will be a leader on economic issues the same way he has been on foreign policy issues." McCain also boasts of a list of big business backers including Cisco (CSCO) Chief Executive Officer John Chambers, Merrill Lynch (MER) CEO John Thain), and former Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) CEO Carly Fiorina, who has been traveling on the campaign trail with McCain. "His record is far better than the record of the governor of Massachusetts," Fiorina told a business group in Michigan in January.

Javers is BusinessWeek's Capitol Hill correspondent.