Annapolis, MD — Acknowledging that he has “a lot of work to do” to attract and energize the conservative base, Sen. John McCain said Monday he continues to increase his share of the conservative vote and is on pace to seal up the GOP nomination in the coming weeks.

“We are doing fine. We have 700 some close to 800 delegates. And the last time I checked Governor (Mike) Huckabee has very few…..we continue our movement in the right direction,” McCain said at a Monday press conference, when asked about weekend losses to Huckabee in Kansas and Louisana. McCain is well positioned to grab more than 100 delegates in the Virginia, DC and Maryland primaries scheduled for Tuesday, noting he believes “it’s important that we do well tomorrow”

“I have said we have a lot of work to do to unite the party…we are doing very well with conservative voters. We continue to increase our share of the vote with conservative voters and we will continue to work with them,” he added, when asked about President Bush’s weekend comments that the Arizona senator has some work ahead to unite critical conservatives around his candidacy.

The campaign is touting the endorsement of former Family Research Council president Gary Bauer. In a written statement released this morning, Bauer said he “admire(s) his consistent 24-year pro-life record and demonstrated commitment to the values that keep our families and communities strong. John McCain alone has the experience, character and credibility to lead as commander in chief on day one and defeat the transcendent threat of our time — radical Islamic extremism. I am proud to support John McCain for president.”

The Arizona Senator also denied that his campaign had any role in Governor Rick Perry’s phone call to Huckabee over the weekend in which the Texas Governor allegedly asked McCain’s rival to drop out.

Additionally, McCain said Huckabee is entitled to call for a recount into the Washington State Primary results, but added that he believes the state party had “sufficient evidence,” to declare him the victor. “I think it is pretty clear that we won,” he said.

Kansas City, MO — Rudy Giuliani will spend Wednesday campaigning and fundraising in Missouri (albeit a Feb. 5 primary state) but with no stops planned across the border in Iowa—only 100 miles from the site of his first appearance in Kansas City tomorrow. The trip comes as his national approach to the nomination is being met with increasing criticism by pundits and strategists who are questioning his decision to pay little attention to the traditional early primary/caucus states of Iowa (1/3), New Hampshire (1/8) and South Carolina (1/19).

But the campaign is still hitting the early states with ads, direct mail and recently deploying surrogates to the make the case for Hizzoner in the last week.

Among them:

–Former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson and other campaign supporters have been heading up to New Hampshire.

–Televangelist Pat Robertson is hitting the radio airwaves in South Carolina.

–And Texas Governor Rick Perry has visited Iowa and South Carolina in the last week. However, Perry got himself in a bit of hot water last week after attacking President Bush as “never, ever” having been a fiscal conservative in an attempt to distinguish Rudy’s fiscal record. “Rudy is a real fiscal conservative. He’s a bonafide Reagan Republican. George Bush isn’t and he never was,” Perry told a house party in Cedar Rapids. (See video)

Giuliani also returns to New Hampshire this weekend for a multi-day swing but it is unclear when he will stop again in Iowa before the caucus.