Free Republic

The Republican National Committee has chosen a Karl Rove-linked voter data project called Liberty Works to help it compete with Democrats in the digital arena. Liberty Works will team up with Data Trust, whose chairman of the board is former RNC Chairman Mike Duncan, committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski confirmed to POLITICO. “Basically, RNC is going to provide the data, and then Liberty Works will build the platform, and Data Trust will manage it all,” Kukowski said. “This is kind of in the beginning stages. There are legal issues that we’re going to iron out.”

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Some Republican National Committee members in Washington for winter meetings say any vestige of former President George Bush must go, including the RNC chief. With six candidates competing to run the Grand Old Party, some RNC members said they are determined to remove Mike Duncan, the current RNC chairman seeking re-election, because he is seen as a candidate who would maintain the status quo, The Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) reported Wednesday. The winter meetings run through Saturday. Duncan "has never criticized Bush when the president was wrong," said Shawn Steel, a member from California. "He's the...

<p>WASHINGTON (CNN) – The campaign to determine who will lead the Republican party into the era of Obama took a series of unexpected turns Wednesday, beginning with the removal of non-party members from a highly-anticipated “special meeting” of the Republican National Committee.</p>

For most of the past decade and a half, the Ohio Republican Party's leadership was divided into two camps. There were the tax-and-spend Republicans who built solid GOP majorities throughout the state only to fritter them away through scandal, sclerosis, and a lack of economic solutions. And then there was Ken Blackwell, the government-cutting conservative thorn in the state party establishment's side. There was no love lost between the dominant faction and the odd man out. Blackwell was a persistent critic of Republicans in the mold of George Voinovich and Bob Taft, whom he accused of "campaigning like Ronald Reagan...

A battle for the soul of the Republican Party has spilled over into the contest for national committee chairman, as conservative members are prodding candidates to shift their way. Now that the presidential campaign is over and the congressional leadership elections are settled, conservative activists are turning to the race for chairman as their next chance to shape the party. Already, one candidate has come under fire for his association with a centrist organization, while a group of prominent RNC members is set to put others through an exhaustive test of their personal conservatism. "It's important that the chairman be...

Texas Republican Party Chairman Tina Benkiser has teamed up with Ohio´s Ken Blackwell in the contest to lead the Republican National Committee over the next two years. The Washington Times has learned Mrs. Benkiser has decided to forgo a run for RNC national chairman and instead to run for co-chairman, a traditionally less powerful position that historically, with one exception, has been held by a woman. “If I ran for chairman, I decided after looking over the field, it might contribute to dividing the conservative vote and allowing a moderate to win,” she told The Times in a phone interview...

Republican National Committee Chairman Robert M. "Mike" Duncan has officially announced his bid for a second term and is willing to consider naming a general chairman to serve as the "face of the party," he told The Washington Times on Wednesday. Since the Bush White House backed his first election as chairman in January 2007, Mr. Duncan´s lack of dazzle as a public speaker and national spokesman has left him largely invisible as the face of the party. It is widely considered his only significant failing during his two-year term as national chairman. "I would consider having a general chairman...

MIAMI The Republican Party will file federal lawsuits Thursday seeking to overthrow the McCain-Feingold federal campaign finance regulations, Republican National Committee Chairman Robert M. "Mike" Duncan revealed Wednesday night at a private dinner with the nation's Republican governors. The move is considered a slap in the face of the Republican Party's failed 2008 presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who was dramatically outspent by Democrat Barack Obama, and of President Bush, who signed McCain-Feingold into law in 2002. "We will bring two federal suits tomorrow to strengthen the Republican Party," Mr. Duncan told The Washington Times. Mr. Duncan said...

The Republican Party will file federal lawsuits Thursday seeking to overthrow the McCain-Feingold federal campaign finance regulations, Republican National Committee Chairman Robert M. "Mike" Duncan revealed Wednesday night at a private dinner with the nation's Republican governors. The move is considered a slap in the face of the Republican Party's failed 2008 presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who was dramatically outspent by Democrat Barack Obama, and of President Bush, who signed McCain-Feingold into law in 2002. "We will bring two federal suits tomorrow to strengthen the Republican Party," Mr. Duncan told The Washington Times. Mr. Duncan said one...

It might be a moot point for this last election, but the media played a role in it. Just who it helped was a point of contention for Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan. Both chairs were asked if the news coverage gave President-elect Barack Obama an added advantage in this election at a luncheon at the National Press Club Nov. 5. Dean said he didn't think it did, which was met with grumbles from the audience. He claimed the media had an impact, but it was offset on both sides and he...

WASHINGTON -- The Republican Party's highest-ranking Latino official abruptly resigned Friday, marking the latest casualty in the GOP's bitter internal fight over immigration and dealing another setback to President Bush's years-long effort to court Latino voters. The announcement by Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida that he was quitting as general chairman of the Republican National Committee came after he had expressed frustration over the tenor of the immigration debate within his party. ... "Mel Martinez was a symbol of the party's outreach to Latinos, and that seems to be disappearing," said Lionel Sosa, a longtime Republican strategist and advisor to...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Mel Martinez, the public face of the Republican National Committee as its general chairman, announced Friday he was stepping down from his post after serving only 10 months. "I believe that our future as a party and nation is bright and I have every intention of continuing to fight for our president, our party, and our candidates," the Florida senator said in a statement. He said he was relinquishing the post to spend more time focusing on his constituents, and because the RNC reached the objective it set out to when he assumed the role last fall.

Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, who was named general chairman of the Republican Party only nine months ago, has advised associates that he will leave the post as soon as somebody clinches the party's presidential nomination. That probably will come after the Feb. 5 primary elections next year. When Martinez took the party post Jan. 19, it was expected he would stay on through the 2008 elections as the GOP's principal national spokesman. Many Republicans now grumble that Martinez has been ineffective in that role, partly because he has been drowned out by the many presidential hopefuls. Kentucky lawyer Mike...

WASHINGTON -- Rudy Giuliani is the only 2008 Republican presidential candidate who has not accepted an invitation to a "values voters" conference of social conservatives in Washington, D.C., Oct. 19-21 sponsored by the Family Research Council. Giuliani's absence suggests that he will fare badly in the conference's straw vote though he leads the national Republican public opinion polls. Some 2,000 social conservatives from around the country are expected to attend the event. A footnote: Supporters from outside his staff are urging Giuliani to discontinue the stunt of interrupting a campaign speech by taking a cell phone call from his wife....

Robert M. (Mike) Duncan was confirmed as General Counsel of the Republican National Committee in July 2002 and January 2005. He previously was elected Treasurer of the RNC in January 2001. Duncan, in his fourth term as National Committeeman from Kentucky, has served the party at every level from precinct captain, county chairman, state chairman, and national officer. He has been a delegate to the 1972, 1976, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 Republican National Conventions and is one of the few persons ever to serve on the four standing convention committees. Duncan was elected chairman of the Convention Credentials Committee...