Don’t expect another Haley Barbour. That’s the message to keep in mind when the 165 members of the Republican National Committee convene on January 17 to select a new leader. “Most of the committee members are looking for another Haley, but there’s not one in this race,” says Tom Slade, chairman of the Florida GOP. So who’s going to be the next chairman? A Hotline/PoliticsNow poll last week found David Norcross of New Jersey, former RNC counsel, nominally leading with 19 votes, but the combined support for “Uncommitted” and “No answer” was a more revealing 90 votes. In other words, the race is wide open. Steve Merrill, the early front-runner and popular governor of New Hampshire, never managed to pull away from the field. And his home-state paper, the conservative Manchester Union-Leader, endorsed one of his opponents. A bigger problem may be that Merrill is seen by many committee members as an ally of high-priced consultants. The large bloc of Christian Coalition-oriented committee members — as many as 40, according to the Coalition’s Ralph Reed — has expressed its reservations about Merrill on these grounds. It didn’t help that Merrill, along with his promotional video, distributed a slick 18page pamphlet advertising the Virginia consulting firm managing his race, Stevens, McAuliffe & Schriefer.
If Merrill falters, Norcross will pick up more votes. But his pro-choice position on abortion means he’s unlikely to find the 83 votes needed to win. Nor do most observers expect that the Right’s favored candidate, Tom Pauken, can get to 83, though he’s shown surprising strength. Emerging late last week as a favored compromise candidate was Jim Nicholson, a conservative national committee member from Colorado. Nicholson is a Vietnam veteran who has spent the last 20 years mired in grassroots politics. He acknowledges, “While I’m not necessarily people’s first choice, I am their second choice.”
