May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama took steps indicating they are beginning to consider running mate choices as Hillary Clinton's aides kept up their campaign to have votes in Florida and Michigan counted.

Obama is assembling a small group of advisers, including former Fannie Mae Chief Executive Officer James Johnson, to create a search committee that will vet potential vice presidential candidates, according to reports in the Atlantic.com and from the Associated Press.

McCain is preparing for a weekend barbecue at his Arizona ranch with several prominent Republican officeholders, including Florida Governor Charlie Crist, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and former Massachusetts Governor and primary rival Mitt Romney, who have been mentioned as potential running mates.

With Clinton still fighting for the nomination and the last primaries less than two weeks away, Obama's aides refused to talk about the running mate hunt.

``Were not commenting on this process at this time,'' campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

Mark Salter, a top aide to McCain, said the weekend event in Sedona, Arizona, was purely social.

``There's no connection to the vice presidential process,'' he said last night.

Path to Nomination

McCain, an Arizona senator, has sewn up the Republican nomination. Obama holds a commanding lead over Clinton in the number of delegates needed to secure the Democratic nod. He has 1,965 delegates to Clinton's 1,780, according to a count by the Associated Press. A candidate needs 2,026 to get the nomination under current party rules, which Clinton is fighting to change.

Obama has said he won't talk about running mates until the primary campaign is finished and his path to the nomination is clear. The final Democratic primaries are June 1 in Puerto Rico and June 3 in Montana and South Dakota.

The AP, citing unnamed Democrats, reported that Obama has asked Johnson, who served as the chairman of former vice president Walter Mondale's failed presidential bid in 1984 and lead the running mate search for Massachusetts Senator John Kerry in 2004, to begin vetting potential candidates. The Atlantic reported that former Senator Tom Daschle also is advising Obama on the selection process.

Johnson didn't immediately return a phone call to his office seeking comment.

Fannie Mae

Johnson, 64, is vice chairman of Perseus LLC, a Washington- based merchant bank. He served as Fannie Mae's chief executive from 1991 through 1998 and serves on the boards of several companies including Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Los Angeles, California-based KB Home.

He is also the longest-serving board member at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and chairman of its compensation committee, which awarded Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein a record $68 million in pay for 2007.

In September 2006, the AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. labor federation, sought to oust Johnson from the boards of six companies on which he serves, saying his record as a board member and compensation committee member is ``replete with compensation abuses that collectively are an unacceptable record for a director of a public company.''

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress and the chairwoman of the party's convention, said it isn't too early for Obama or Clinton to begin searching for running mates.

``I think that Hillary Clinton and Senator Obama both have a good chance to win the nomination and have started thinking about who their running mate might be,'' Pelosi said at the Capitol.

No Talks

Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson said the campaign had no comment on the reports about Obama's running mate search. He dismissed reports that aides to the two Democratic candidates have talked about Clinton running with Obama in the general election.

``There have been no conversations with the Obama campaign,'' Wolfson said on a conference call.

On the call, Wolfson and Clinton strategist Harold Ickes said no claim on the Democratic nomination can be made until the Democratic National Committee settles the dispute over Florida and Michigan. The two states held their primaries in January in violation of party rules and were stripped of their delegates.

Clinton and the other candidates agreed to those penalties and didn't campaign in either state before the votes. The DNC's rules committee is scheduled to meet May 31 to discuss how to handle the two delegations.

`Serious Candidate'

``I don't think anybody who is a serious candidate for the president of the United States can ignore any state,'' Ickes said.

Steven Geller, a Florida state senator, asked a federal court in Miami today to order the Democratic National Committee to seat the state's entire delegation. Geller, a Democrat, argues in his lawsuit that the DNC's decision to ban the Florida delegation is unconstitutional. In March, Geller failed to win support for a compromise proposal to seat half of the state's delegates.

Obama and McCain continued their cross-country debate. Obama, who was in Washington for Senate votes, criticized McCain for failing to support a bill that would cost up to $4 billion a year for education benefits to veterans.

``I can't understand why he would line up behind the president in opposition to this G.I. bill,'' Obama said on the Senate floor. ``I can't believe why he believes it is too generous to our veterans.''

Military Veteran

McCain, a veteran who spent five years as a North Vietnamese prisoner of war, said the proposal is too expensive.

He backs an alternative which would raise monthly education benefits for veterans from $1,100 to $1,500 a month.

``I will not accept from Senator Obama, who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform, any lectures on my regard for those who did,'' McCain said in an e- mailed statement. McCain skipped votes in the Senate today because he is campaigning in California.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Stern in Washington at Cstern3@bloomberg.net; Lorraine Woellert in Washington at Lwoellert@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 22, 2008 16:27 EDT