To be a John McCain supporter for the past year has meant being “patient and lonely.” That’s how it was described to me a Tuesday night by Chris Fidler, one of McCain’s volunteer campaign coordinators in Washington state. That, of course, all changed with McCain’s victory in the New Hampshire primary. In fact, the change began a couple of days ago, Fidler said.

“I’ve been hearing from a lot of old friends in the past 48 hours,” he said. “And they’re more than welcome to join us.”

McCain’s victory is giving new life to what was a well-connected, but largely invisible, campaign team in the state. Attorney General Rob McKenna is the chairman of the campaign. Former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton is the honorary chairman. Former U.S. Attorney Mike McKay and Fidler are co-chairs of the state steering committee. And in New Hampshire last night was former Secretary of State Ralph Munro, a longtime McCain supporter who had spent the last week “doing grunt work” as a campaign volunteer. Gorton, McKenna and McKay all supported George W. Bush over McCain in 2000.

The media had written McCain off, which the candidate pointed out in his victory speech. There was little staff to help McCain and even less money.

“There were certainly some dark days for the McCain campaign,” McKenna said. He says that McCain’s position on immigration -- said to be too liberal for many Republicans -- caused steep dives in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire. Many people figured McCain wouldn’t even still be in the race tonight.

“I had people in the Romney camp ask me to endorse him,” McKenna said. Sometimes people weren’t even that polite to Munro.

“People were walking up to me on the streets in Olympia and I remember at the Seattle Rotary saying, ‘Your guy is done. He’s dead. And for all practical purposes he was.”

Now though McCain is very much alive in this campaign. A decisive victory will do that for a candidate. For McKenna, Gorton and others on the team here, the next question is whether McCain will still be in the fight when Washington residents get a say in the presidential race.

That will come in two parts for Republicans, during the Feb. 9 caucus and the Feb. 19 primary. McKenna said that he and Gorton have written a memo to the McCain national campaign proposing a Washington visit. He said they want McCain to visit both eastern and western Washington, make public appearances, and do some fund-raising.

In 2000, McCain lost the Republican caucus vote to Bush, and again lost to him among Republican voters in the primary. McCain did well among independent voters. Those votes didn’t change the delegate count any, though, because only voters who declare themselves Republican can cast a ballot in the GOP primary or take part in the caucus.

McKenna said that McCain was hurt in 2000 because he left the impression with eastern Washington voters he would consider removing dams. McKenna said that’s not McCain’s position, but he was caught off guard by a question eight years ago and had no time to counter negative news stories.

McKenna said organization for the caucuses will get a boost from the New Hampshire victory. But he said that it’s still far from known whether there will be much of a race left next month. And the McCain campaign has much tougher battles to fight before then, including in South Carolina, which spelled the end of McCain’s 2000 campaign.