Embattled Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele on Monday defended his handling of the party’s finances and get-out-the-vote effort at a five-way debate intended to help the party to decide who should run it for the next two years. Steele’s four opponents threw soft punches, but most were aimed at his handling of the RNC’s bank account, which is now $20 million in debt.
“It’s time for some tough love at the Republican National Committee,” declared candidate Ann Wagner, a former RNC co-chairman and former head of the Missouri Republican Party. “How can an organization that has lost its credibility, is $20 million in debt, is steeped in mismanagement, distractions and drama actually lead us into the next election cycle of 2012 and offer change?”
Committee members will elect a chairman Jan. 14.
Steele shocked many in the party who expected him to step aside by announcing last month that he would seek a second term, citing the GOP’s historic gains in the 2010 elections, including 63 House seats and six Senate seats.
Steele is considered unlikely to win, but reminded those watching the debate, organized by the Daily Caller and Americans for Tax Reform, that he helped deliver big victories not long after the party was having trouble even fielding candidates. If re-elected, Steele said, he would build on those successes and grow the party at the grass-roots level.
“I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy,” Steele said. “I don’t see the crisis as some may see it. I don’t see it as something where the alarm bells go off and you start throwing and remaking and blowing up, but what you do is you get down to the heavy burden, this burdensome work of building, and we did.”
But Steele’s opponents argued that new leadership is needed to raise money for the 2012 presidential election cycle. Steele has been accused of not spending enough time or effort raising money, disappointing donors who are unhappy with his spending and now reluctant to keep giving.
“Obviously, with this unprecedented debt, this is going to be a tremendous challenge with respects to rebuilding the credibility amongst so many major donors who have left our party,” said Saul Anuzis, former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party.
Anuzis said party donors told him no one from the RNC had even called to ask for money.
Most of the candidates pledged to make fundraising their primary job if elected RNC chairman.
The man considered to be the frontrunner in the race is Wisconsin GOP Chairman Reince Priebus, who promised Monday to spend “five, six hours a day making major donor calls, major donor visits, literally working like an absolute dog for the next two years, getting our fiscal house in order.”
Priscilla Rakestraw, Delaware’s RNC committeewoman, said she’s backing a fourth candidate, Maria Cino, a former RNC official who Rakestraw said would expand the GOP base.
“Having a woman chairman is an outstanding way to get the message to women,” Rakestraw said.
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