RNC Chairman

In response to a question from Human Events about how then-Sen. Barack Obama campaigned against him and called him an “amiable fellow” without much of a resume, Steele pondered what he’d say to the president.
“I’d say congratulations, and I look forward to sparring with him. And then I’d say: How you like me now?”
To another [...]

Michael Steele became chairman of the RNC on a 91-77 vote on the fifth ballot, having picked up 12 of Saul Anuzis’s 20 votes. I’m at a press conference now, starting late as staffers work on the audio and happy Republicans mill around. “I saw a grown man cry today!” said D.C. Republican Nelson F. [...]

The fifth ballot results, post-Ken Blackwell:
Michael Steele – 79 (+17)
Katon Dawson – 69 (+9)
Saul Anuzis – 20 (-11)
Minutes later, Anuzis took the stage to deliver a 45-second statement thanking the members and endorsing no one. Steele needs 1/3 of Anuzis’s supporters to win; Dawson needs 2/3.

As Ken Blackwell took the stage five minutes ago, Ana Marie Cox broke the news that he would drop out and endorse Michael Steele. Once he started talking about the “promise of the party of Lincoln,” everyone knew it. This shellacks a strategy that I had just heard developing over at Saul Anuzis’s camp: convincing [...]

The results of the fourth ballot:
Katon Dawson – 62
Michael Steele – 60
Saul Anuzis – 31
Ken Blackwell – 15
Dawson’s people broke out into cheers: They picked up 28 of Duncan’s 44 votes. Steele only gained nine, Anuzis 7. The dealmaking goes on with Dawson’s best card already played. Before the count I saw Dawson chatting with [...]

Mike Duncan has ended his bid for another term as RNC chairman, telling the hall that “the winds of change are blowing” in the party, and endorsing no one. Ohio GOP chairman Bob Bennett asked for a 15-minute recess and was loudly booed. There is no recess. Voting continues without Duncan telling his members how [...]

Michael Steele and Ken Blackwell just conferred in the hallway outside the main room, with Steele doing most of the talking. Steele tried to brush aside the ideological disagreements  they’d had (”from day one”) and stress how both of them (”and J.C.,” referring to J.C. Watts, the former Oklahoma congressman) had worked to change the [...]

The third ballot:
Michael Steele – 51
Mike Duncan – 44
Katon Dawson – 34
Saul Anuzis – 24
Ken Blackwell – 15
Patrick Ruffini’s nightmare of a Dawson-Steele race is looking more and more possible. Lots of eyes on Anuzis, who knows he’s been beaten. But I talked to Morton Blackwell, the Leadership Institute president and Ken Blackwell (no relation) [...]

The spin from Michael Steele’s camp was a little overzealous. The results:
Mike Duncan – 48
Michael Steele – 48
Katon Dawson – 29
Saul Anuzis – 24
Ken Blackwell – 19
Duncan and Blackwell drop, Dawson and Anuzis gain, everyone else holds. Of course, Duncan’s drop was the biggest, but the worry for his people was that they could drop [...]

Some RNC staff and hardcore Mike Duncan supporters are seated right next to ballot box. When Duncan walked by during the first ballot (he’s a voter, too), they cheered and his smiled back at them. He just walked by for the second ballot. More cheers. No smile from Duncan.