The Republican National Committee chose Michael Steele, former lieutenant governor of Maryland to be the chairman. The election took six ballots before he could get the 85 votes needed to win. He won with 91 votes out of 165, defeating Katon Dawson, the South Carolina Republican chairman. During the election Dawson faced many concerns such as reinforce the notion that Republicans are becoming a Southern regional party and to help ease these concerns he stopped going to his all white country club. One of the things Steele had going for him was that he was one of the two non-members of the committee running. Steele stated that "it’s time for something completely different and we’re going to bring it to them. We’re going to bring this party to every corner, to every boardroom, to every neighborhood, to every community. And we’re going to say to friend and foe alike, ‘we want you to be a part of us, we want you to be with us and for those of you who are going to obstruct, get ready to be knocked over.’ " Ken Blackwell, another African American running for the position pulled out of the race after the fourth ballot with only 15 votes. “Obviously, the winds of change are blowing at the R.N.C.,” Mike Duncan said. The election showed the party's desire for a clean break from the former President who withdrew after the third ballot. He got 41 votes on the third ballot which was 11 votes short of the 52 he got on the first ballot. Chip Saltsman of Tennessee also run, but he distributed a CD with a song called “Barack the Magic Negro” which caused concern. He dropped out on the eve of the contest after apparently failing to qualify for the ballot.
1 comment:
Yeah, i am not sure what exactly they hope to accomplish by gettting a Black person to this position. After all, minorities avoid the Republicans like the plague (i mean just look at their conventions, finding minorities is like finding waldo). FUrthermore, given their pro-christian stances, they further alienate people. If they truly want to not be a "regional party" they would have to stop preaching the bible and doing that would inevitable alienate the SOuth. Furthermore, i find this election to be like putting Palin as VP (i mean he could be capable but i do not believe he would be MOST capable).
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