The National Journal’s Josh Kraushaar heralds the GOP as the party of diversity:
The GOP success this year in electing minority leaders who can appeal to a wide cross-section of voters should serve as a wake-up call to Democrats, who are accustomed to carrying the mantle of diversity. If Democrats don’t address their own challenges recruiting minority candidates with widespread appeal, the rise of Obama could be more the exception than the rule.
There will be less diversity at the top when the Republican National Committee elects its new chairman in January.
I had planned to attend FreedomWorks’ tea-party-cum-candidate-forum to vet the candidates for the position of RNC chairman. Instead, I was stuck in Philadelphia so I viewed the live stream of the event.
Four of the six announced candidates showed up -- Michigan GOP national committeeman Saul Anuzis; former RNC political director Gentry Collins, former RNC co-chairwoman Ann Wagner and former RNC chairman Mike Duncan.
The candidates agreed that current chairman Michael Steele failed as a fundraiser and steward of the party’s finances. Collins said:
The party under his leadership failed to raise the major donor money it is going to require to defeat Barack Obama, defeat his policies and defeat his ideology and agenda in 2012.
Anuzis noted, “It takes two things to win an election: money and everything else.” And added:
We are in a situation where we need a different type of leader for a different type of challenge. We’re going to have to raise more money than we ever have before, and we have to put together a better ground operation than we have before.
Although no frontrunner emerged, Anuzis was the clear favorite of the online audience.
Steele has yet to say whether he will seek a second term, but he was the clear loser.
The final nails in Steele’s coffin are reports of too many Cooks on the RNC payroll. The Daily Caller reports:
If it wasn’t enough for Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele’s former personal assistant, her son and her sister to be leading the preparations for the party’s national convention in Tampa in 2012, fear not. There are more Cooks in the RNC’s kitchen.Also on the payroll of the Committee on Arrangements for the Republican National Convention is Pamela Kesner, Belinda Cook’s niece.
While Steele fancies himself a chairman for the grassroots, they also want him to get to stepping. A new Public Policy Polling survey found Republican voters oppose his reelection by more than a 2:1 margin.
It looks like the party is over for Steele.
