Still looking for details but…<\/p>\n
Former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele has been elected Chairman of\u00a0 the Republican National Committee.<\/p>\n
Update<\/strong>: Steele defeated South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson 91-77 in the sixth round of voting to become RNC chairman.<\/p>\n My immediate reaction is this a good day for the Republican party, Steele is terrific communicator and should be an effective advocate for the party’s principles and policy ideas on radio and television .<\/p>\n Update II<\/strong> (5:20 p.m.): Reuters has the details<\/a>:<\/p>\n WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Republican Party picked its first black chairman on Friday as it elected former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele to rebuild the party after a string of devastating defeats.<\/p>\n Steele, 50, is regarded within the party as a skilled speaker who can help bring the Republican message to black Americans, Hispanics, suburbanites and other fast-growing groups that have shunned the party in recent years.<\/p>\n Steele has argued that as a high-profile Republican in a heavily Democratic state he knows how to talk to voters outside of the party’s Southern stronghold.<\/p>\n “We’re going to win again in the Northeast,” he told the cheering crowd. “We’re going to continue to win in the South. We’re going to win with a new storm in the Midwest. And when we get to the West, we’re going to lock it down and win there, too.”<\/p>\n As Republican National Committee chairman, Steele will have to find a way to counter Democrat Barack Obama, who was sworn in as the country’s first black president 11 days ago. Read the rest…<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Update III<\/strong> (6:35 p.m.): Hot Air has the video<\/a> and The Hill has background on Steele’s campaign<\/a>:<\/p>\n Steele won after a highly coordinated yet under-the-radar campaign in which his whip team sought to convince members that the RNC needed to reach out to centrist voters with a new voice.<\/p>\n He hop-scotched the country for months, meeting with members in their home states. At a candidates’ forum Thursday night, Steele said he had raised about $250,000, making the race for RNC chairman likely the most expensive per capita in history.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Still looking for details but… Former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele has been elected Chairman of\u00a0 the Republican National Committee. Update: Steele defeated South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson 91-77 in the sixth round of voting to become RNC chairman. My immediate reaction is this a good day for the Republican party, Steele is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[88,337],"class_list":{"0":"post-1423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-politics","7":"tag-michael-steele","8":"tag-rnc","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfpI7-mX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2225,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/michael-steele-gop-must-confront-obama-head-on\/","url_meta":{"origin":1423,"position":0},"title":"Michael Steele: GOP Must Confront Obama Head-On","author":"Jeff","date":"May 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been swamped for the past few days and haven't been paying close attention to the new but one thing that did catch my attention was Michael Steele's speech at the RNC Chairman's meeting yesterday. It was a great speech...\u00a0 Greg Hengler has the whole 30-minute address at Townhall.com but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1044,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/22\/fred-thompson-drops-rnc-bid-for-return-to-acting\/","url_meta":{"origin":1423,"position":1},"title":"Fred Thompson Drops RNC Bid for Return to Acting","author":"Jeff","date":"November 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Continuing with my catching up on things theme here... It looks like the race for RNC Chair has tightened a little more. I mentioned a few days ago that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's bid for appeared to be losing steam and now comes word that Fred Thompson is dropping\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":991,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/14\/poll-question-who-do-you-want-as-rnc-chair\/","url_meta":{"origin":1423,"position":2},"title":"Poll Question: Who Do You Want As RNC Chair?","author":"Jeff","date":"November 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"[poll id=\"11\"] My initial gut reaction is Newt Gingrich, though, the more I think about it the more I'm leaning towards Michael Steele or Fred Thompson. As much as I like Newt he may be to polarizing for the job. The choice between Steele and Thompson is tough one, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1011,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/18\/newts-prospects-fading-in-quest-for-rnc-chair\/","url_meta":{"origin":1423,"position":3},"title":"Newt’s Prospects Fading in Quest for RNC Chair?","author":"Jeff","date":"November 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Washington Times is reporting that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's bid to be the next RNC chairman may be losing steam. From the Washington Times: GOP governors and state party chairmen say former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will be a leading Republican spokesman but not as its national chairman,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":269,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/04\/the-morning-after\/","url_meta":{"origin":1423,"position":4},"title":"The Morning After…","author":"Jeff","date":"September 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m pressed for time this morning so I\u2019ll keep this short... If you\u2019re like me you watched Sarah Palin\u2019s speech last night with a critical eye. Personally, I thought she knocked it out of the park. She showed why grassroots conservatives love her and why smart liberals are worried or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":225,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/29\/mccain-vp-watch-whos-it-going-to-be\/","url_meta":{"origin":1423,"position":5},"title":"McCain VP Watch… Who’s It Going To Be?","author":"Jeff","date":"August 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My top picks in no particular order: Fred Thompson Michael Steele Sarah Palin Carly Fiorina Michelle Malkin has more... Update: Foxnews says it's Palin. Whew... I'm not sure what to say. Personally, I would have preferred Michael Steele or Fred Thompson... That said Palin's a great choice, grass roots conservatives\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}