It's On: Saul Anuzis Will Challenge Michael Steele for RNC Chairmanship (Outstanding)

We couldn't agree with Saul Anuzis more about this challenge. If I was looking to support someone for RNC Chair, Michigan would be a good place to start after the outstanding job they did in the 2010 election. They have elected Rick Snyder, a Republican businessman, to be the next Michigan Governor and also took control of the legislature. If someone would have told us six months ago that Michigan would go red in 2010, we would have burst out laughing.

That can do attitude of Saul Anuzis and other key Republicans in Michigan made it happen to the amazement of a lot of long time Republican activists. They were organized and Rick Snyder had a message that resonated with Michigan voters.

We were originally supporters of Ken Blackwell for RNC Chair and Steele was a distance choice. In fact the OK GOP Chair supported Michael Steele who we believe would have done a much better job. We are not donating one cent to the RNC while Steele is the Chairman after he took donations and paid Sarah Palin's legal bills so she would campaign with him. We didn't donate to have the RNC pay her legal bills, and we are not alone. Frankly most people I know in the Party are appalled at what they have been seeing out of Steele from some of his comments to his fundraising.

Earlier this election cycle, I received $1 in the mail from the RNC asking for donations. How much did that cost them? I didn't send in a donation. Then we had the overnight express mail package I had to go to the post office and sign for as I wasn't home when it arrived. Thought it was something important -- wrong it was a fundraising appeal from the RNC. In fact if I stacked up all the appeals for fundraising that came in snail mail, it would reach the ceiling. Sometimes I averaged 6-8 appeals a day from various candidates. One day I received three from the Angle campaign in NV. But the top one was the RNC. Would hate to hear how much they spent on direct mail and postage.

Try talking to a live person who knows anything at the RNC -- you spend hours trying to get through to an office only to find out you are now talking to someone in another state who has no clue. Ask for a call back and it never happens when you are answering their correspondence.

They won't see one penny out of anyone I know until the mess is cleaned up and fundraising is common sense. I don't mind getting a fundraising letter at the first of the year to pay dues, but send me email after that which is a lot cheaper. This year I am not paying dues until I see a change. The new RNC Chair needs to do a clean sweep at the Headquarters and quit hiring sons and daughters of big donors. Hire fewer people, but hire professionals.

Mainly stop this continual snail mail request for fundraising. I don't open the letters now -- just throw them in File 13 to go out with the trash.

Want a Chairman who speaks for Republicans like Haley Barbour did as RNC Chair. At times I have wondered which side Steele is on which is not good. Just the fact he is being challenged made my afternoon!

It's On: Saul Anuzis Will Challenge Michael Steele for RNC Chairmanship
Nov 12, 2010 • By JOHN MCCORMACK

Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele drew his first official challenger this morning when former Michigan GOP chairman and current Michigan committeeman Saul Anuzis declared his intentions on Twitter. "I’m in. I’m running for Chairman of the RNC," tweeted Anuzis, who posted a link to a letter to all RNC members. "My goal: take back the White House by bringing donors back, finding new ones, & having the best 72-hour effort ever."

Chairman Steele, beset by lackluster fundraising and a string of gaffes, will face stiff competition if, as reported, he wants to keep his job. While Anuzis surely won't be the only person competing, he enters the race in a strong position, respected by both conservative activists and members of the RNC, who are likely to elevate one of their own if they decide to replace Steele. Anuzis ran an unsuccessful campaign to be chairman in 2008 and continued to serve as a committeeman, so he's well known by the committee's other 167 voting members. Earlier this week, RedState's Erick Erickson floated Anuzis's name for RNC chairman.

RNC insiders tell THE WEEKLY STANDARD that currently about 40 to 50 RNC committee members back Steele, 40 to 50 someone other than Steele, with the remaining members undecided; 85 votes are needed to be elected chairman of the RNC at its meeting in mid-January. Support for Steele could implode--and implode rather quickly if Wisconsin chairman Reince Priebus, a member of Steele's inner circle who was the chairman of Steele's 2008 RNC campaign, decides to run. Another committee member who has reportedly expressed interest in the job is former national chairman Mike Duncan. Other RNC members and a few outsiders are considering a run.


Anuzis's pitch to be chairman is pretty simple and straightforward: The RNC "needs someone behind the scenes," Anuzis told me yesterday, who is "making the trains run on time and raising the money necessary to run the 72-hour [get out the vote] program."

Steele has faced criticism from a number of Republicans for not raising enough money to fully fund "get out the vote" operations. "I have no doubt that the RNC cost us several close races," one Republican campaign manager, who managed a statewide race this year, told me. "The 72-hour program was not funded to the extent it was in the past."

"It is clear that the high-dollar donors do not have confidence in the RNC, in particular the chairman," Mississippi committeeman Henry Barbour told THE WEEKLY STANDARD Thursday. "And until there's a change in the way things are done and the leadership, they're not coming back. And we have to have them in a presidential cycle to be successful."

While the overall amount of money raised by the RNC was high, Barbour explained, much of that money was spent on high-cost direct-mail fundraising. "So when you hear the chairman talk about how much money he's raised, what you don't hear him talking about is putting historic amounts of money into campaigns because they spent all of their money trying to go get more money," Barbour said. A fundraising report next week will shed light on just how bad the financial situation was, but even Steele's supporters admit that the "national party gave less to states than it had in recent years." While the RNC transferred $2 million to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Democratic National Committee was able to transfer three times as much cash to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Excerpt:  Read More at The Weekly Standard