By Shawn Steel

California’s National Committeeman to the RNC

Last year  Michael Steele upset the Republican establishment as the first outsider in a generation to win election as Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Massive forces were aligned against Steele, but the harsh lessons of wholesale Republican repudiations of 2006 and 2008 helped propel Michael’s message.

The message from Steele?  That for Republicans to win again, they must embrace and act conservative. We have valuable lessons to learn from the Tea Party movement. Depending on the Republican bulls in Congress could be fatal. Over the years, many RNC vendors grew rich over no-bid contracts.  In fact, there still remains an RNC member who was paid over $1,000,000 from the RNC — who was a fierce opponent to Steele’s election. Chairman

Steele promised reforms. No more no-bid contracts. Old favored vendors would have to compete. The Establishment would have to move over and and re-invent themselves.

The tests to measure a Chairman’s success are straightforward: first,  does he raise the money needed to win elections and second, does he then win elections?

Steele when he took over leadership of the RNC immediately realized that the major donor program was inactive after the 2008 election.  He also saw there that there was not an effective direct mail campaign in the works. Within days, after clearing out the dead-wood out of the RNC, Steele brought in a new hungry team and out-raised President Obama’s DNC in eight of the following eleven months.

At the same time, Steele assigned the RNC staff to begin working to win the governorships in New Jersey and Virginia. The RNC was the single largest donor to both campaigns. Many millions were spent, plus an army of paid and non-paid workers flooded both states. Hoping to win one of the Obama voting states, Steele helped do the impossible by winning both. Plus carrying all statewide offices in Virginia.
                              
Michael Steele represents the new impatient conservative leaders emerging in the Republican Party. When Steele criticized Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter (before the latter formally switched parties) for working too closely with the Democrats he was criticized by a “former RNC official.

Steele wrote a book , Right Now: A 12-Step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda.  More public complaints from former RNC officials.

However, all that is over. Done. The earthquake upset in Massachusetts has stilled  any further criticism of Steele’s leadership. No more hostile resolutions. The few disgruntled are running to embed themselves in the woodwork. No Chairman, including the famed Haley Barbour has had this much success in only one year in office.

Upon my election by the California Republican Party as our state’s Republican National Committeeman in early 2008, my first call the next day was to Michael Steele urging him to run for RNC chair to help change the direction of our party.  I am grateful to the CRP members who gave me a chance to help join the forces of change for the good. It’s nice winning again.

WASHINGTON – Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele released the following statement today: “As President Obama travels to Copenhagen to bring the Summer Olympics to his hometown seven years from now, Americans back home are increasingly concerned they won’t have a job seven months from now as they see more and more of their neighbors and friends lose jobs today.  The president’s verbal gymnastics will not hide that fact that more than 263,000 Americans lost their jobs in the month of September alone and the national unemployment rate increased yet again to 9.8 percent.  The president said, ‘the measure of an economy is, is it producing jobs?’  Clearly it isn’t.  President Obama can either acknowledge that his economic experiments have failed and change course, or continue down this path and see even more Americans lose their jobs.”  

WASHINGTON – Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele released the following statement today: “Amid allegations of vote fraud and illegal activities, ACORN has vowed to continue their voter registration efforts. Today’s decision by the IRS and recent bipartisan votes in both the House and Senate to deny taxpayer dollars to this corrupt organization are steps in the right direction.  (more…)

WASHINGTON – Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele released the following statement today: “As President Obama takes his traveling road show to Montana, Colorado, and Arizona, Americans simply aren’t buying his efforts to repackage his government-run experiment. ‘Health insurance reform’ or ‘health care reform,’ ‘co-ops’ or ‘public option;’ no matter what he calls it, no matter how he tries to dress it up, no matter where he goes, he can’t escape the fact that his government-run health care plan would increase costs, increase taxes, increase the deficit and reduce health care choice and quality.  The American people are learning more everyday about what the president’s health care experiment would do to them, their families, and their businesses.  Despite what is seen at the president’s manufactured town halls, fewer and fewer Americans are supporting government control of health care.  Like Old Faithful, the president’s performances simply make for a good show.”

Transcript:
 
“This is Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee.  Democrats have controlled both branches of government for less than a month.  And you have to wonder if all that power has gone to their heads. (more…)

By Shawn Steel
 
2-4-2009 7:21 am
 
Much is discussed about Michael Steele’s remarkable election as chair to the RNC. Already Republicans note his unswerving conservative views on the Chris Wallace FOX show last Sunday night. His election has electrified a rather lethargic and angst ridden political party. (more…)

As Republicans, we’ve complained, and rightly so, that we had no one willing to articulate our conservative ideals and call down liberals on their ill-conceived plans.  We’ve waited for someone who would not back down from the socialist agenda and clearly stand up for us.  The new Republican National Chairman, Michael Steele, seems quite willing to do just that. 

Republican Leader Vows to Mix It Up 

by Adam Nagourney

WASHINGTON: The election last week of Michael Steele to be chairman of the Republican National Committee drew considerable notice, not surprisingly: He is the first black American to hold that position in the party’s 155-year history.

But there are other ways that the selection of Steele, a former lieutenant governor of Maryland who lost a bid for the Senate in 2006, represents a break from the Republican past. (more…)