Lt. Gov. Michael Steele is almost certain to be the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate seeking to replace Democrat Paul Sarbanes. He recently discussed the campaign and his views in an interview with The Examiner.
Q: Why are you running?
A: I saw the potential to make a difference.
Q: What difference have you made as lieutenant governor?
A: Reforming the relationship of government and small business. Creating greater avenues for people to access a piece of the Maryland dream. The work I?ve done on my education commission, to look at how we jump-started reform.
Q: What about the racial issues concerning you as a black Republican?
A: This noise about race ? it?s born out of fear, and it?s born out of concern that maybe there?s a different perspective in the black community that represents a new generation of thinking. I?m a post-civil rights African-American. I?ve been handed an incredible gift by the likes of Dr. King and Malcolm X and Sojourner Truth and others. My responsibility now that they have gotten us a seat at the lunch counter is to make sure this and future generations get to own the diner.
Q: What are your core beliefs?
A: I believe in the power of the individual over government, not government over the individual. It is the individual that has made this country what it is. It is not any government institution. Gov. Ehrlich and I, over the last three years, have seen the creation of 100,000 new jobs. Government didn?t do that. Businesses did that, individuals did that, risk-takers did that.
Q: Do you think the time for affirmative action is past?
A: Absolutely not. We?re just beginning to rediscover what we should be doing with affirmative action. Don?t look at our universities. We got that. Let?s look at our boardrooms, let?s look at the management structure.
Q: Is your identification with President Bush going to hurt you?
A: I don?t think so. Everybody knows I?m a Republican. The president?s not popular ? too bad for the president. What does that mean for me? Not much. I?ve got to convince people of my qualifications, my capabilities for being a United States senator. There are things that I agree with the president on, there are things that I disagree with the president on.
Q: What things do you disagree with him on?
A: I think we could have done a little bit better with No Child Left Behind. It was a great idea, poor execution. The way the administration handled the port deal. Again, great idea, poor execution. Where we are right now with the war in Iraq is largely a failure to communicate.
Q: A failure to communicate?
A: To lay out for the people exactly what the strategy is. OK, you won the war, now how do we deal with the peace? How do we deal with building up a democracy and sustaining a democracy? Our military is not a police force. It is a military. It blows up things, it breaks things. The American people feel that we?ve not been very clear about the direction in which we?re going.
Q: You don?t favor immediate withdrawal?
A: I think a precipitous withdrawal is dangerous. What is dragging down the president?s popularity is the Iraq war. That?s what people remain very frustrated at. Close behind that is immigration.
Q: Two of your competitors in the Senate race, Rep. Ben Cardin and former NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, say they favor universal health insurance.
A: What does that mean? Who pays for universal health insurance? Who pays for socialized medicine? I don?t need government dictating tome when I go to the doctor, which doctor I go to, how much is going to be paid for my health care. That?s not the America I want to live in. I think we have some better alternatives than going to a European-style or a Canadian-style health care system.
Q: African-American. Republican. Catholic. Pro-life. Does that put you in a little box?
A: It puts me in the mainstream of America, baby. What you just laid out is one way to describe Michael Steele. The other way to describe him is he?s a brother who cares. He?s someone who?s concerned about the working man and woman.
As an African-American, I think it?s time that we respect the fact that there is a wide range of opinion and diversity of thought. Kweisi Mfume doesn?t represent every black voice in Maryland. I don?t represent every black voice in Maryland. And Ben Cardin certainly doesn?t either. The reality is that this will be an election about voices, and the people of this state will get to hear a lot of voices. They?ll gravitate to the one that resonates in their hearts and in their minds.
Q: Is there an element of the black community to whom social conservatism has real appeal?
A: Everyone will tell you, at least off the record, that the majority of African-Americans are conservative. They?re God-fearing, church-going conservatives when it comes to a host of issues.
I get sick and tired of seeing people trying to pejoratively put us in a box and say we all think and feel and believe the same thing, the same way. Black leadership is very different from everyday black folks ? trust me. And I think this election will show that.
Lt. Gov. Michael Steele
Born: Oct. 19, 1958, Andrews Air Force Base, Prince George?s County
Education: Archbishop Carroll High School, Washington; B.A.; Johns Hopkins University (international relations), 1981; Augustinian Friars Seminary, Villanova University; Georgetown University Law Center, J.D., 1991
Professional Career: Attorney (corporate securities); founder, The Steele Group (business and legal consulting firm); associate, Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, 1991-97
Political Career: chair, Prince George?s County Republican Central Committee, 1994-2000; delegate, Republican Party National Convention, 2000; chair, Maryland Republican Party, 2000-02; Executive Committee, Republican National Committee; Maryland lieutenant governor, 2003-present
Family: Wife, Andrea; two sons, Michael and Drew
