Surrounded by like-minded people, the high-profile Republicans touring northwestern Pennsylvania in support of John McCain’s run for the presidency on Wednesday morning acknowledged they may have been preaching to the choir when it came to touting their candidate’s credentials.

But “it’s going to be a close election, (and) we need your support,” former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge told a crowd of about 40 McCain supporters who filled the Crawford County Republican Party headquarters in downtown Meadville. “We have a lot of independent-thinking Democrats out here who we’ve got to reach out to. This is a state we need to win, and with your help, we will.”

Ridge stopped at the headquarters as part of the day-long “Victory 2008” bus tour through the region with incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Phil English; one-time Republican gubernatorial candidate and former Pittsburgh Steelers star Lynn Swann; and Cpt. Jerry Coffey, a friend of McCain’s who served with him as a prisoner of war during Vietnam.

Crawford County’s and the region’s party base “is going to play a critical role in this election, as it always does. We have the team, and we have the values,” English said.

The visit came hours before English appeared at Allegheny College for a debate with Democratic congressional candidate Kathy Dahlkemper, and the day after a nationally-televised town hall-style debate between McCain and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

On Tuesday, the political newspaper Roll Call reported that polls indicate English is one of the 10 most vulnerable candidates out of the 434 U.S. House of Representatives seats up for election. “Phil needs your support like John McCain needs your support,” Ridge said.

When it came to expressing the merits of McCain’s character, Ridge, English and Swann deferred to Coffey, who said he developed a lasting personal relationship with McCain while the two lived with one another as captured prisoners in Vietnam.

“I have the dubious distinction of having been a jailbird with John McCain,” Coffey told the crowd, adding he grew to know McCain over a roughly year-and-a-half-long period spent in a prison in Hanoi.

McCain’s “time there as a POW was characterized by honor, courage, integrity, commitment and patriotism,” said Coffey. “That’s exactly the kind of man we want” in the White House.

The half-hour Meadville stop was part of a campaign tour that included an early-morning rally at Perry Square in Erie and stops after Meadville in Mercer, Butler and Westmoreland.

As election day nears, such visits “really help to rally the base and get people excited and motivated to motivate other people. It strengthens the grassroots efforts,” said Derek Dye, a 20-year-old member of the Allegheny College Republicans group who attended Wednesday’s event.