John McCain blew into Georgia on Thursday looking for two things that are vital to his bid to become the next president of the United States: cash and party unity.

The U.S. senator from Arizona wrapped up the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday and was in Atlanta two days later to celebrate. On Thursday evening, he was working to accomplish both of those goals, during a fund-raiser at the Westin Buckhead.

John McCain Presidential Nominee during an interview with AJC reporter at the Westin Hotels and Resort on Peachtree.

Renee Hannans Henry / AJC

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Dozens of well-scrubbed Republicans crowded the sunny hotel atrium to retrieve name tags that cost $1,000 a person for the main reception and $2,300 for a VIP event in an upstairs meeting room.

McCain, smiling and looking thinner in a gray, pin-striped suit, said in an interview that money and support both are well within in his grasp.

He has struggled with the former, compared with his Democratic opponents, U.S. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, both of whom had raised $135 million through Jan. 31, according to Federal Election Commission records. McCain raised $54 million.

"They deserve great credit for raising lots of money," McCain said. "We are now, by uniting the party, able to reach out to donors who supported other candidates. And so we're seeing a significant increase in contributions."

But "we really do have a long way to go," he said. "A little straight talk, a long way to go."

Georgia is an interesting choice for one of his first stops since claiming the party's nomination. He lost the state's primary to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Feb. 5 after being accused of being too liberal by some state Republicans who backed other candidates.

The event had been scheduled before McCain officially claimed the nomination and was hosted by Gov. Sonny Perdue and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, neither of whom endorsed a candidate before the primary. Both now have endorsed McCain.

Those are signs, McCain said, that the internecine fights of the primaries are over.

"In [the] Texas and Ohio races, we got more and more people who identified themselves as conservative and very conservative," McCain said. "Polling data shows that we have more Republican support than Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton have Democrats' support."

Still, McCain acknowledges that he and his party have "work to do."

"Again, a little straight talk — we not only have to reunite the party but re-energize the party," he said. "I have to re-energize the Republican base. You win elections by energizing the base."

The speaker pro tem of the Georgia House of Representatives, Mark Burkhalter (R-Alpharetta), who attended Thursday's reception, said Republicans know what is at stake.

"Republicans understand we have a process," said Burkhalter, who backed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the primary. "It's a healthy process, deciding who our nominee is. You'll see the Republican Party unite as it always does."

Burkhalter entered the affair with Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram), who originally endorsed former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and then endorsed McCain when Giuliani dropped out.

"I'm excited we've got a war hero running to be our president in this time of war," Richardson said. "I'm here to see him and shake his hand again."

A couple of dozen people stood outside on Peachtree Street to protest that McCain championed an immigration reform bill that critics said amounted to amnesty for illegal immigrants. Another handful of protestors were there to blast McCain's support for the war in Iraq.

Earlier in the day, the Democratic Party of Georgia called on McCain to repudiate the endorsement of a Texas minister who has made provocative comments, described by some opponents as racist and sexist, including once calling the Catholic Church "the great whore," and who has held a "slave auction" at his church.

Democratic Party Chairwoman Jane Kidd called on McCain to "renounce the racist, sexist and divisive comments." The Rev. Joseph Lowery, a veteran leader of the civil rights movement, called it a "shameful display of racism and bigotry."

McCain waved it off as typical election-year politics. But he also was careful to say Thursday that Hagee's beliefs are not his own.

"Pastor Hagee endorsed me," McCain said. "That does not mean I endorse everything Pastor Hagee said. All I can say is lots and lots of people endorse me. That means they embrace my ideas and positions. It does not mean I endorse them."

McCain was to remain in Atlanta overnight and was scheduled to hold a town hall meeting with Chik-fil-A employees this morning at the company's headquarters on Buffington Road.