Correction: Roger Villere sent this video around to RNC members. Villere is a Blackwell supporting RNC member from LA.
The day is approaching to give it your best
You’ve got to reach your prime!
That’s when you need to put yourself to the test
And show us the passage of time.
We’re gonna need a montage. (Montage)
A sports-training montage! (Montage)
And just show a lot of things happenin’ at once.
Remind everyone of what’s goin’ on. (What’s goin’ on?)
And with every shot, show a little improvement
To show it won’t take too long.
That’s called a montage. (Montage)
Even Rocky had a montage! (Montage)
In any sport, if you want to go
From just a beginner to a pro
You’ll need a montage. (Montage)
A simple little montage! (Montage)
Always fade out (Montage) into a montage… (Montage)
If you fade out it seems like a long time (Montage) has passed in a montage… (Montage)
Montage… (Montage)
You can listen to it here. I am working on some client proposals on the moment so don’t have time to listen to it so if any readers want to post their thoughts in the comments I’d appreciate it.
AZ RNC Member Bruce Ash has a blog and posted his thoughts on Ken Blackwell getting into the race. With how few voters there are in this election, I am hoping to feature individual members and their thoughts as each voter represent 0.6% of the electorate.
From Bruce’s letter:
I have met and spoken with Mr Blackwell in depth about his political views. I have found Ken to be devoted and consistent conservative. He has held a number of political positions in Ohio winning 13 of 17 contests. He has demonstrated a keen ability to raise money. He is a friend of the taxpayer , pro 2nd Amendment and opposes same sex marriage and abortion. In addition to his political activism he has also been a proven success in the business world.
One interesting point on the Politico article that certain of the pro-Blackwell people have been pushing is that the article seems to deal fairly positively with each candidate and then talks about Blackwell’s campaign “lagged behind others” and “had not caught fire.”
Now the Politico is not exactly the most GOP friendly publication, but I feel like there were a few key points they should mention
Fiscal conservative leaders backing Blackwell (Pat Toomey, Steve Forbes)
Key social conservative support from TX delegation
Actual committee member endorsements which are the ones that count
That’s not to say everything is great for Blackwell, committee members I have talked to worry about his huge 24pt loss for Governor. They wonder if we really want to pick someone as chair who had one of the worst GOP showings in recent memory. However, he has run a strong campaign for chair and picked up key conservative support. As much as the blogosphere talks about tech as the key to the race I think committe members could careless. They have three major concerns: competency, ideology, and geography.
What say you readers? Post your thoughts in the comments.
Politico published today a pretty indepth coverage of the RNC Chair race in a pretty good article today stepping through all the major candidates. You can read it here. The major theme of the race so far seems to be the uncertainty of how the few actual voters in this race will break versus the media predictions.
There’s still a ways to go in the race, and experienced Republicans point to the 1997 contest for RNC chair – when Jim Nicholson upset a crowded field in the party’s last competitive leadership election – as evidence that anything can happen.
…
Mike Duncan– As the current committee chair, Duncan knows the party’s insiders better than anyone else in the running. And while his present term in office has left Republicans with mixed feelings – his prolific fundraising doesn’t quite make up, in some leaders’ minds, for the GOP’s devastating November losses – he’s ended on a strong note thanks to Saxby Chambliss’s victory in the Georgia Senate runoff and the GOP’s two House wins in Louisiana.
…
Saul Anuzis— Among the field of candidates seeking to become the anti-Duncan, Anuzis stands out for his energetic campaigning and his emphasis on technology. The Michigan GOP chair announced his bid on Twitter and has been hammering away at the theme of tactical innovation. Multiple Republicans noted Anuzis’s big, colorful personality – he rides a Harley-Davidson and sports a goatee as an asset in a race where candidates are struggling to distinguish themselves from an ideologically homogenous field.
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Michael Steele—Steele, a former state party chair who served as Maryland’s lieutenant governor before losing a Senate race in 2006 to then-Rep. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), is essentially tied in second place with Anuzis. Steele announced his candidacy on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity and Colmes” to great fanfare, touting his skills as a political communicator at a time when Republicans lack a high-profile leaders on the national stage.
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Katon Dawson– Running a little behind his fellow challengers, but still mounting an energetic and serious campaign, is South Carolina Republican Party Chair Katon Dawson. With a better win-loss record than Anuzis and a closer rapport with RNC members than Steele or Blackwell, Dawson could ride a wave of conservative and Southern support into the late stages of balloting – particularly if the Blackwell-Benkiser gambit falls flat.
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Ken Blackwell– The former Cincinnati mayor and Ohio secretary of state entered the RNC campaign late – on December 5 – and has lagged behind the other contenders. While his candidacy hasn’t exactly caught fire, it got a potentially significant boost this week in the shape of his partnership with Benkiser, who could help Blackwell appeal to the significant social conservative bloc on the committee.
Blackwell has also moved forward with a series of moves that appear designed to capture the RNC’s fiscal conservative vote, receiving the endorsements of publisher Steve Forbes and Club for Growth head Pat Toomey. Endorsements don’t necessarily pack much of a punch in an internal election like this one, but every little bit helps.
…
Chip Saltsman– A former chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party and campaign manager to Mike Huckabee, Saltsman has more to gain than any other candidate from a protracted, multi-ballot knife fight for the chairmanship. The 40-year-old has been running a vigorous race against more established candidates, though he’s had to distance himself from the Huckabee campaign in a race where no one wants to support a stalking horse for 2012
What stood out most in the article though? It seems the Republican anonymous consultants see the Steele campaign as stumbling… “Steele’s campaign hasn’t gone quite the way he expected it to, according to some Republicans, who believe Steele expected his star power to carry him farther than it has in a race in which many RNC members would prefer to elect one of their own.”
The decision of Texas Republican Party chair Tina Benkiser and former Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to formally ally in the race to become the next chairman of the Republican National Committee is, by rights, a minor affair, but it has to the potential to be the most important development yet.
“Recognized as a national conservative leader with an amazing record of accomplishment, Ken Blackwell is a dedicated servant-leader,” Benkiser wrote in a letter to RNC members. “Whether it is leading the charge on issues or successfully running an effective organization, Ken is what our Party needs at this time. He will establish a clear distinction between the Republican Party and our opposition.”
Most significantly, this union gives evangelical Christians on the national committee a single ticket to join. Combined, the Blackwell-Benkiser ticket commands the support of at least 20 to 25 members, and probably closer to 30 of them. About 40% of the 168 members on the committee are estimated to be hard core social conservatives. Support from 85 members is needed to win. Parochially, the alliance gives Blackwell an entree into the Texas delegation. More importantly, Benkiser gives him some administrative cover, because she, not he, has run a party organization before. But now that there’s a ticket so solidly identified with the Christian right, there will be many Republicans who, while not wishing them ill, worry about a party that is too overtly Christian and religious. The ticket, therefore, opens up an avenue for candidates who don’t claim to be the avatars of evangelical activists. To be sure, the next RNC chairman will be opposed to gay marraige and pro-life.
Candidate Chip Saltsman, who has been courting, above all, Southern Christian conservatives, will probably lose support.
The frontrunner, current chairman Mike Duncan, is now in a bit of quandary. On January 5, the conservative steering committee of the party meets to interview the candidates. Duncan encouraged this committee to form, and intended to rely on the then-relatively even distribution of social conservatives to thread the needle between the right and the center-right. The day before the meeting, all of the candidates will debate, in public, at the National Press Club.
Ross Little (LA) and Ruth Ulrich (LA) have both today announced their endorsement of Ken Blackwell for RNC Chair. This is another pair of announced supporters for the Blackwell team that has been adding endorsements left and right. It seems the rest of the candidates are keeping their cards much closer to the vest. What say you readers? (List of public endorsements)
Day Two of our new blog and things seem to be picking up in the race. Saul Anuzis’s plan got some press on his blue print, and Ken Blackwell announced a running mate.
The Washington Times has learned Mrs. Benkiser has decided to forgo a run for RNC national chairman and instead to run for co-chairman, a traditionally less powerful position that historically, with one exception, has been held by a woman.
“If I ran for chairman, I decided after looking over the field, it might contribute to dividing the conservative vote and allowing a moderate to win,” she told The Times in a phone interview Tuesday.
It was announced today that Ken Blackwell would run with Tine Benkiser as his co-chair candidate. According to party rules the party has to elect a female co-chair. (Aren’t we the Republican Party, what if there were two highly qualified women running shouldn’t we elect them for both chair and co-chair? Meritocracy I thought was our big thing, but I digress…)
Matt Lewis first reported this on AOL’s political machine today, and I am trying to get comment from the Blackwell campaign as well as others on what they think of this development. The letter is below.
Dear RNC Member,
Today we are very pleased to make the most important announcement of the campaign for RNC Chairman. I am pleased to announce that Texas GOP Chairman Tina Benkiser and I will be running together as a ticket for the positions of Chairman and Co-Chairman of the Republican National Committee, respectively.
I wholeheartedly endorse her candidacy for Co-Chairman and thank her for her support.
This is clearly exciting news for our campaign. But I am ever more excited about the potential to work with Tina to lead our party to victory in 2010. She has been of the very best state party chairmen in the country and has the values and principles that we need in party leadership. She offers a vital perspective of what state party organizations across the country need from the RNC in order to be effective.
I am thrilled at the prospect of working her, and for you, next year. Please take a moment of your time to read this important letter from Tina Benkiser.
