Posted on 01/14/2011 11:08:07 AM PST by iowamark
Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus led after the first ballot in the race for chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Needing 85 votes among the 168 members to win, Priebus took 45 votes in the first round. Trailing Priebus after one round is Chairman Michael Steele with 44 votes, former RNC official Maria Cino with 32 votes, Michigan Committeeman Saul Anuzis with 24 votes, and former Missouri GOP Chairwoman Ann Wagner with 23 votes.
Several more ballots are expected before someone reaches the 85-vote threshold. Steele won the 2009 race after six rounds, defeating a five-candidate field that included Anuzis and then-Chairman Mike Duncan.
All eyes are now on Steele to see if his support begins to dwindle. In 2009, Duncan dropped out after three rounds after watching his vote total dwindle from 52 to 44. He had led after the first round and was tied with Steele after the second round.
The sense here is that if Steele did not finish in first place after the first ballot, he would have a difficult chance of winning. Still, much of the talk among members before this vote centered on whether Steele would leave the race when it became apparent he could not win...
We have to hope voters don’t get hung up on a voice that doesn’t sound like their own, or Sarah will have another problem to overcome.
It is. If Barbour somehow ever became our candidate it would be Barry again in a landslide. But I don’t think any Republicans in NH would possibly vote for him. Can’t believe Iowans would be so clueless either.
I think Barbour reminds me of an overboard and exaggerated late night comedian trying to imitate him. I loved him being mean to rats when he was RNC chair tormenting them with the scalded dog line. He was great with GOPTV also. Sarah sounds like the Michiganders and Minnesotans which is fine with Midwesterners, but for the rest of the voters, it is an easy voice fix.
Voters have to like the candidate first, and he might be charming,but this smart guy acted very tone deaf recently on race which shocked me. If he was misquoted he should make sure everyone knows that.
I do not like some of his policy points which sounds like Rat policy.
RNC must stand on principle — “We elected the most qualified person to be RNC chair.”
There is no and can be no other argument.
Next question.
See my post #225.
I am so tired of the race card being played by the left — let us throw it back in their face.
It is not likely that black or white LIEberals will ever vote for a Republican, so the thing for us to do is point out the hypocrisy of the race card argument vis a vis Dr. King’s argument and perhaps, just perhaps, some of the LIEberals will come to understand the error of their ways?
Better to stand and fight for what is right than to pander to the FReaking LIEberals!
See my post #225 & 226.
See my post #225 & 226.
Big surprise there!
No, it doesn’t invalidate your point: other than Steele (who had dropped out by the time you posted), all of the candidates came from the Electoral-Vote-shedding region from the Midwest to PA and NY (Priebus from WI, Wagner from MO, Anuzis from MI and Cino from NY). NY lost 2 EVs in each of 2000 and 2010; MI lost 1 in each of 2000 and 2010; MO lost 1 seat in 2010; and WI survived 2010 without losing a seat. but it lost one in 2000. But while the Midwest has very slow population growth (and in the case of MI, negative growth), it is chock full of swing states with 10-20 Electoral Votes, so it makes sense for the RNC Chairman to come from the region.
The voters of Wisconsin did a good job in Wisconsin. Reince is a mealy mouthed milquetoast who never wants to upset anybody or make any changes. I sat through a meating at a State Assemblyman's house where Priebus was present when we were trying to scramble to get a conservative to run for Senate. At the time, our choices were between a likeable Conservative who did not want to raise money for his own campaign and a wealthy developer who couldn't give a speech and who hadn't (because of tax breaks for his businesses) paid State Income Tax for 5-9 years. We were begging him to get someone who could actually win. All the "names" in Wisconsin were unwilling to run. Reince was in favor of backing the man who couldn't give a speech and who hadn't paid taxes (legal, but the kiss of death for a candidate) because he was independently wealthy. The idea that he found Ron Johnson for us is preposterous. Johnson's name never came up. Johnson came through the Tea Party and Priebus latched on to him after it was shown that there was grass roots backing for Johnson that would not back the wealthy non-taxpayer.
Furthermore, every time someone from the Party actives went to him with a problem (and we have real problems with infighting here) he just ignored it, or failed to show for the meeting. I certainly hope that he chooses someone dynamic to be the "face" of the RNC and confines his wheeling and dealing to the back rooms.
I hope this decision will not come back to bite us.
I know a man whose name is Perfecto Rivera. He's a good Republican, but that is neither here, nor there. I was interviewing him to write a short bio for a newsletter one time and asked him his middle name.
"No middle name," he replied. "I am grateful that my mother never gave me a middle name because it probably would have been Jesus!" he laughed.
"But, seriously," he added, "my name has been my greatest asset and I credit my success in part to it. When I was in sales, nobody EVER forgot it, and it has taken me a long way."
Wow. Add to this your post about Haley Barbour ... L.A. governor and you had quite a day yesterday. How does a '99 FReeper get to be so dense?
You asked “Precisely what does the color of a person’s skin have to do with the RNC chair?”
I answered, precisely, that the position is partly a marketing position and that the GOP has to cultivate an image as a party that appeals to more than easily befuddled white men who get by through patronage and nepotism.
Now that image isn’t true, but it is an image nonetheless.
So that’s ‘precisely’ why
If you don’t like the answer, don’t pretend that the answer doesn’t have some legitimacy and that the answer doesn’t matter, because it does. You and I may not like it, but it does matter.
Like I wrote, cultivating a fantasy world where important things are unimportant is unwise.
And it takes a person of color or a female to “sell” the GOP?
My point is that it is high time that the tribal and class warfare the Democrats have managed to force upon the USA during my adult lifetime be ended.
The RNC is a fund raising and “elect Republicans” operation, not a PR operation like Michael Steele thought it was.
If the RNC chair can raise a lot of money, spend it well and recruit good candidates and elect them, then he/she will have done their job.
And, when questioned about their color or their gender, RNC officials should say “it is immaterial to the job at hand. The Race card and the Gender card have no place in Republican or American politics.”
Somebody has got to start the ball rolling, and the new GOP Chairman should be the man to do it!
Obviously, I don’t consider race and gender important at all — what matters is character.
Calling Rush’s comments incendiary and telling him to step aside that he (Michael Steele) is the head of the Republican Party. Steele was a fool to take on the king of conservative talk radio.
OOOOOH, yes, David speaks the truth. What the RNC does won't matter. The GOOOP is DOOOMED thanks to GOOOH! They're OOON their last legs, 1854-2012! GOOOOH will take the Presidency, the Supreme Cooourt, and BOOOTH houses of Congress in 2012! I predict at least 536 electoral votes for the most hooonorable, brilliant man of our times, the next President of the United States, the great Dr. William M. Escoffery III, M.D.!!! RINOOO Marco Rubio learned the hard way not to take III's pooowerful eloquence lightly! A REVOOOLUTION is brewing!
Today, FLOOORIDA, tomorrow, the WOOORLD!!!!
Forget Zod. Kneel before Escoffery and the GOOOOOOOHMBATS.
LMAO! That should have been davidosborne's tagline during the FL Senate primary. I kinda miss his adoring vanity posts about the guy.
LOL.
Who is this David guy? If I’ve encountered him before I don’t remember.
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