General Chairman Mel Martinez will not run the RNC
Mike Duncan will be the chairman
By Mark Kilmer Posted in Republicans — Comments (32) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Relax. Mel Martinez has not been named to run the Republican National Committee by his lonesome, while serving as United State Senator.
Martinez, 60, will remain in the Senate when he takes the reins of the RNC in January, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting a formal announcement. The first-term senator will be the face of the party, focusing on fundraising, outreach and travel to promote the GOP agenda.
At the same time, [Robert] Mike Duncan, the RNC's current general counsel and a former party treasurer, will be named chairman and will be put in charge of running the everyday operations at the party's Capitol Hill headquarters, the officials said.
Mel Martinez = General Chair, fundraiser
Mike Duncan = Chairman, day-to-day chief
I don't know what went into the Martinez rather than Mike Steele decision, but it must be that the committee believes that Martinez will be a better fundraiser.
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General Chairman Mel Martinez will not run the RNC 32 Comments (0 topical, 32 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
If I recall correctly, many Democrats who wanted to appease the netroots without endorsing the 50 State Strategy wanted to make Dean the chief fundraiser while appointing someone else to do the strategery.
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
I'd really like to see something similar on the GOP side, frankly.
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Dean Nation is now Nation-Building: Purple politics, muscular liberalism, principled pragmatism
The 50 State Strategy strikes me as wishful thinking. It's like drawing to an inside straight. You might hit it once, but you'll go broke before you hit it again.
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
Build up Democratic State House and Senate in these Republican states, which is very possible. People are much more likely to vote for Republicans or Democrats in state elections than federal.
If Democrats get the majority in the State then they can redistrict to help Democrats federal and elect governors that can then be elected to the Senate. I don't see how you would go broke before "hitting".
I remember seeing that the GOP % of the hispanic vote dropped significantly in '06 vs '04. They probably figured regaining that vote was a better choice than Steele and african americans. If they are smart Steele will get some other high profile position in GOP circles.
don't consider Cubans to be real Hispanics. It would be to them like hiring an Italian for outreach to the Irish community.
Someone who understands the differences among Spanish speaking people. The Left here has created the term Hispanics into one big group. The picture is much more complex than everybody thinks.
They shouldve gone with Congressman Bonilla.
International Affairs is just Political Science with an accent.
I hear John Bolton's term is expiring.
"I am afraid that even after the American people will elect those who promise to leave Iraq, the U.S. will not do so." - Hamas leader Abu Abdullah
Mel or Mike? Can we have some clarity on this?
Illegal immigration. Dunno exactly what Michael Steele's position was (not in Maryland or surrounding states), but Mel Martinez loves it.
he was critical of Bush during the campaign.
Michael Steele won't be appointed dogcatcher at this point.
to the administration at this point would probably not be a wise move.
But the GOP would be stupid to ignore tha man-he was the only recruit for the '06 elections that was worth talking about, and he ran a far better campaign than a lot of the GOP incumbants.
The R after his name killed him in MD though-in a different year it may not have mattered, but this year it did.
Mark wrote:
I don't know what went into the Martinez rather than Mike Steele decision, but it must be that the committee believes that Martinez will be a better fundraiser.
Long story short:
There was a conference call, and Rove's stooges in the call brought up Martinez's name on cue. There was no vote, nor even any mention that some kind of decision was at hand.
Mere hours later, Rove's people leaked it to CNN and AP.
It's another classic Rove "screw the conservatives" move. And, God willing, his last.
Rove is always about screwing conservatives. Karl Rove is so smart and treacherous that he actually has been pretending all along and has just been a liberal plan.
This is what Rove and Bush think will help the party the most in both the short an long run. I don't think it's a bad decision. He's not going to be deciding major policy or anything like that. He will be the face of the party. So long as he can conduct himself honorably in that facet of his job, he's a fine choice.
Its still up to several dozen state committeemen and women from across the country to actually vote for the RNC chair in January. I know how this works in my party, but are things so set up in the Republican party that who ever they say is the man in DC is actually the man?
These state committeemen and women are beholden to party activists (I shudder to say that word) in all 50 states, not party operatives in DC.
If this isn't who you want, for Pete's Sake, email your state committeeman and tell them not to vote for him!
It might be worth looking through the myDD archives from Dec 2004 to see how the netroots leveraged the vote and used the system to make Dean chairman. I supported that strongly at teh time, despite naysaying from the insiders. If you want to get Steele on board, theres still time. But it will require the same kind of netroots effort.
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Dean Nation is now Nation-Building: Purple politics, muscular liberalism, principled pragmatism
http://www.mydd.com/tag/Democrats/110
The situation back then was there was a "establishment" candidate, not unlike Martinez, who was endorsed by Pelosi and Reid (Tim Roemer), who ended up getting beat out by Howard Dean.
I remember that period well. I refocused Dean Nation as well on the Dean candidacy because we generally felt that since we lost the battle for the nomination to teh candidate and that candidate lost, we had a stringer case. We wouldnt be dnied, and we werent.
The main difference though is that steele has not to my knowledge articulated a different strategy. Dean was talking about the 50state approach from the start, and that was why he got the support he did esp from the party activists. If steele starts to promte a 50state approach then he might be able to ride in on a similar grassroots-driven wave. But if he is just being put forth as a "new" candidate, but no specifics on what he intends to do differently, then its not going to materialize.
(btw if I am out of line giving Republicans advice here then please let me know. Im not pretending to be a Republican or even a conservative here).
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Dean Nation is now Nation-Building: Purple politics, muscular liberalism, principled pragmatism
"(btw if I am out of line giving Republicans advice here then please let me know. Im not pretending to be a Republican or even a conservative here)."
Ditto.
I just think you guys might be getting the shaft here.
but it would be nice to have a dynamic new face. But the GOP is determined to self-destruct.
A "dynamic, new face," I mean? They are nice to have from time-to-time, including at a time like this, but we must balance that against the dangers of: "Discover the New GOP!" We're too close to a Presidential election, I think, to totally reinvent ourselves.
It can be argued that Ronald Reagan reinvented the GOP in 1980, but he had been working at that feverishly since 1976.
If we want to send a message, the party apparatus is not the way to do it. Do you remember whom was the first party chair appointed when Reagan was President? A fellow named Dick Richards who had been with the RNC for over a decade.
What we need are dynamic officeholders. I think of people like Mike Pence and Marsha Blackburn.
The party apparatus is secondary to the elected officials. Their job is to get those officials elected.
While I wanted Lt. Gov. Steele to be RNC, I was happy to see many other qualified candidates be chairman of the RNC if Steele did not receive the offer.
However.
Mel Martinez is one of the few Republicans my friends in Florida would not vote for. His primary campaign against Bill McCollum became very, very ugly, with Martinez labeling McCollum the "darling of homosexual extremists".
According to the lib media logic, President Bush would only win Florida because of Martinez's support among Latino voters. Instead, President Bush won by around 5 to 6 percent, while Martinez only won by 1 to 2 percent. He was very lucky to defeat Kathy Castor. Not exactly the strongest nominee for Democrats in the history of Florida.
A few months into his term, wasn't a memo sent out by his staff which said the Schiavo tragedy was great political fodder for Republicans? Many of those involved in this case weren't politically motivated and they were tarred by the brush of the memo.
None of this means he will be a bad RNC chairman, but I can't say I remember him being an inspiring speaker for the talk show circuit.
This decision, I think they could have been more bold in their choice.
As a Cuban-American I actually do like Mel at least he's not part of the Hyphen Mafia (Diaz-Balart/Ros-Lehtinen). That being said I don't see how he can possibly help the GOP. As a cabinet secretary he was a non-entity. That hasn't changed since he became Senator - he is an empty suit with little dynamism or originality. Ideologically he is inconsistent and uncertain - a muddling moderate who seems to grasp the flavor of the month and then move on. If this is the best we have to offer we are in trouble.
She's well spoken and articulates our positions well.
She's not afraid to take on the libs.
Better still, she's not afraid to stride into the den of the libs and smack them around. (Blitzer still wearing his neck brace?)
Vote for Lynn!
http://www.scrappleface.com/?p=2392
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Bipartisanship = give + take. Republicans give. Democrats take.
Mel Martinez is an order taker. He doesn't excite anyone and doesn't inspire anyone other than the Bush family to trust him with prize positions.
I'm sorry, but that's the truth.
His being General Chairman of the RNC is the biggest sign of hypocrisy going into 2008... Look Hispanics, we love you, look what we did with mel MARTINEZ...
Please...
How come we can't get a dynamic and bold leader for the RNC? I mean, the President is stuck in the low 30's of popularity, we're in the minority, the money spicket is going to be drying up... I don't see ol Mel out there lighting fires of enthusiasm...
Never speak ill of a fellow republican