02 February 2009
Republicans Select African American to Lead Party
National committees organize, raise funds and campaign for candidates
Washington — As the new head of the Republican National Committee (RNC), Michael Steele will be one of the most visible faces of the Republican Party and its first African-American chairman.
Steele, a former lieutenant governor of Maryland, was elected to a two-year term as chairman of the RNC January 30. It took more than five hours for the 168 members of the RNC (three from each state and territory) to award Steele a majority of votes among an original field of six candidates.
There are hundreds of state and local chapters of Republicans and Democrats, the two main political parties of the United States. Local organizations tend to operate fairly autonomously, but the RNC and its counterpart, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), are the main organizing bodies.
The national committees are most visible during presidential and congressional election years as they provide technical support to local chapters and raise funds for candidates in competitive races across the country. Both organizations maintain offices in Washington, close to the U.S. Capitol.
The RNC and DNC also set most of the rules for national conventions, which oversee the drafting of party platforms, the nonbinding statements of a party’s goals approved at each national convention.
Even in a year without presidential or congressional elections, the national committees remain busy, raising money for candidates and promoting party positions and points of view. The committees also continue recruiting new members and encouraging active members to seek public office.
CHALLENGES AWAIT STEELE
A sitting president of the United States usually is recognized as the leader of his party, but the national committee chairman of the party not occupying the White House frequently emerges as that party’s chief spokesman. Steele likely will articulate the Republican Party’s views regularly at public appearances and on television programs.
He often will be countered by Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, chairman of the DNC. Kaine offered his congratulations to Steele January 30, saying, “Together, we have the honor of leading our respective parties during one of the most important periods in our country’s history. I look forward to working with Chairman Steele as we set out to put partisanship and the politics of the past aside to get our economy working again.”
After losing the White House and suffering congressional defeats in 2006 and 2008, the Republican Party faces many challenges as it seeks to rebuild itself and expand its influence. Party members are eager for Steele to take the party in a new direction that will bring in new future leaders and also reinvigorate the party base. (See “Despite 2008 Democratic Gains, Two-Party System Very Much Alive.”)
“We stand proud as the conservative party of the United States,” Steele said in his acceptance speech. “And we will make sure we work hard to make sure those principles, those values … are part of helping set a new direction for this country.”
In an interview on the Fox News Sunday television show February 1, Steele said Republican Party members will “reacquaint ourselves with the voters and help them appreciate exactly what we stand for and what we believe in.”
In interviews, Steele said the RNC will do this by meeting with groups that have lessened their support for Republicans in recent elections. This would include Hispanics and African Americans, who overwhelmingly favored Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.
Steele said his job is to “put good candidates in a position to win.” He is focusing on three big 2009 elections: gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey in November and a special congressional election in New York, likely to be in March.
“We’re going to be on the ground and engaged in all of those campaigns that are going to be important opportunities for us to re-establish the brand for the party,” Steele said. “We’re not going to win all of them. But we’re going to start to win again in important races that matter.”
More information about the RNC and DNC is available on their Web sites.
See also “U.S. Political Parties Enjoy Rich History.”
