It's Official: Reince Priebus, new RNC Chairman

The Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman who helped oversee the groundbreaking elections of Sean Duffy and Ron Johnson is taking his skills to the national stage. Wisconsin's own Reince Priebus officially beat out six other candidates to become Republican National Committee Chairman on Friday afternoon. Priebus, who has been Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair for nearly 4 years, now replaces the embattled Michael Steele who withdrew in round 4 of the ballot process after not being able to gain enough votes to win re-election. The 168-person Republican National Committee conducts its balloting in a round-by-round format with each prospective candidate able to remain in the running from the start of the vote until they no longer are able to draw enough votes to mathematically attain a majority win. Once ousted, each candidate then is able to focus on throwing their support behind one of the remaining options. Priebus secured his victory with 97 votes in the 7th round, long after Steele had been retired and had thrown his own weight behind RNC official Maria Cino. The win was the end game in a complicated series of closed door maneuvering that defines the RNC chairmanship election. Reince never trailed in votes throughout the day and had entered round one of balloting with a total of 44 official commitments. Over the next 6 rounds, the series of contenders fell by the wayside, with ever-shifting enclaves and behind-the-scenes deal-making swelling his vote total into the 7th round where he was finally able to break the barrier, leaving his closest competitor, Michigan's Saul Anuzis, with 43 and Cino with 28.

Priebus threw his hat in the ring on December 6 of 2010. Being from Wisconsin and up against several long-entrenched members of the RNC, his victory seemed like a long shot, but his personal skills and organizational prowess including his experience in running Michael Steele's 2009 campaign to become Chairman helped solidify inner connections and though he didn't have a great showing in the debate round of the proceedings on January 3, he was able to secure the commitments to help him win on Friday.

"Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus will make an outstanding chairman for our national party," Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said in a press release when Priebus announced.

"Our success in Wisconsin this year is due in large part to Reince's leadership in joining with the grass-roots movement that swept Wisconsin and our nation, bringing major Republican gains on November 2nd. Reince made our state party all-inclusive, and led the charge to successfully take back the governor's office, a U.S. Senate seat, two U.S. House seats and both chambers of the statehouse.

Reince embraces conservative principles and has an established track record of outstanding communications, fund-raising and grass roots organization. He is exactly what the national GOP needs: a skilled and proven leader who never forgot the roots of the party."

Priebus' leadership style would be a great departure from the former Chairman Steele's, which is exactly what many in the Party have been clamoring for. Steele's out-in-public facade may have been a distraction from the meaningful, in-the-trenches organizational functions that are looked at as being the most vital to the RNC chairmanship. In Wisconsin, Priebus organized a massive grassroots phone and door-to-door ground campaign that led to the State being one of the top get-out-the-vote networks in the country. Aside from helping to result in the elections of the aforementioned Duffy, Johnson, and Reid Ribble for national offices, it also resulted in a complete flip in the Governorship and the State Houses from Democratic majorities to steep Republican. His roll-up-your-sleeves philosophy may be just what the Party needs going forward as the RNC faces daunting challenges with the 2012 Presidential elections looming, the Establishment and Tea Party wings having to Unite behind a common candidate, and the Committee being 20 million in the hole after the 2010 election cycle in combination Steele's fundraising gaffes and fiscal mismanagement. Priebus' first tasks will be to rebuild relationships and coffers.

“Now is the time for the committee to unite,” he said in his victory speech according to the The Daily Caller. “We must come together for the common interest.”

“With that in mind,” he continued, “I want you to know, that I am here to earn the trust and support for each and every one of you.” He added, “And I’m going to start working right now as your chairman.”

“We all recognize that there’s a steep hill here ahead of us. The only way we’ll be able to move forward is if we’re all together.”

"As Reagan said, our nation is that shining city upon a hill and we must work to keep it that way,” Priebus continued, saying that he would do everything possible, with the help of the committee “to be sure that our Republican presidential nominee has the organization in place to beat Barack Obama."

Priebus, a Wisconsin native, was born in Kenosha and received a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science and English from the UW Whitewater, served as a staffer in the Wisconsin legislature for a year, and then attended the University of Miami where he obtained a law degree in 1998. He interned for the NAACP in Los Angeles and went to work at Michael Best & Friedrich LLP in Milwaukee once out of law school. He ran for State Senate in 2004 where he unsuccessfully challenged Democrat Robert Wirch and then ran for Wisconsin Republican Party chair in 2007 and won as the youngest person ever elected. He additionally became general counsel for the RNC in 2009.

The Most Ridiculous Attack Yet

In politics, seeing unfair & unfounded attacks against elected officials & candidates is all-to-common, and (despite myths to the contrary) has been so, since our nation began.

One paradigm shift that has definitely taken place, of late however, is the hostility towards religion - especially Christianity - in the public arena.

Still, I have been extremely-surprised, seeing the nature of the attacks, against U.S. Congressman John Shimkus (R-IL).



The Congressman has been one of the [increasing!!] number of GOP elected officials who use Twitter, and the related "Web2.0" networking services. On his Twitter page, you will frequently see Bible verses.

So far, nothing unusual, right?

Note: I know Congressman Shimkus, and I also know longtime reporter for the State Journal-Register, Bernie Schoenburg. And I have been fans of both. I was quite disappointed therefore, to find, in Mr. Schoenburg's column from a few months ago, that he was criticizing the Congressman, for Tweeting Bible verses.


The Post-Election [intra-party] elections
This seemingly-noncontroversial matter has arisen again this month, because the Congressman is notably seeking the Chairmanship of the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee.

Check out this "news" article, from the prominent national Hill newspaper.
(Fortunately, the comments section there appears unanimously on the side of common sense!)


I was alarmed, after doing a quick web search the other night, and seeing that this silliness seemed to have spread, throughout the web. In looking back, I saw that a lot of the criticism is regarding Congressman Shimkus' opposition to the global warming alarmism. That attack is also wrong, though not as absurd as the aforementioned one!


**Best of luck to U.S. Congressman John Shimkus, in his bid to become Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Commerce and Energy!!


Note: As said in the sidebar here, all blog entries reflect only the views of their author.

HAWAII SPECIAL ELECTION SHOWS THE POWER OF REPUBLICAN WOMEN.

BY SCOTT SCHNEIDER

The Republican Party may have narrowly missed the chance to send shock waves through the nation last week by not being able to take the Murtha open seat in the Pennsylvania race but they have renewed vigor after taking the open seat in the Hawaii on Saturday night and Republican women may have had a huge hand in it. Charles Djou took the formerly Democratic seat with 39.5% of the vote after Colleen Hanabusa and Ed Case split the opposition vote and failed to combine for 60%. The seat, which opened up after Rep. Neil Abercrombie's retirement from congress presented a huge opportunity for Republicans to score a victory in what has been one of the biggest Democratic strongholds in the nation, and squarely in the district where President Obama spent a part of his childhood. And what may have led them over the top didn't necessarily involve the traditional underpinnings of a GOP campaign. The Federation of Republican Women likely played a huge role in helping to put Djou over the top.

"Our women in the ground were very involved in the Djou campaign," National Federation of Republican Women president Sue Lynch told me at the Wisconsin Republican State Convention in Milwaukee on Sunday. "In fact, Mrs Djou (Stacey Kawasaki Djou)is a member of the Federation in Hawaii."

Late last week, Lynch put out a YouTube video calling women to action for both Tim Burns and Charles Djou campaigns.

"If you're willing to help us make calls, send a check, or even be deployed to Pennsylvania to help Tim, that would be great," Sue remarked. "We need to send a message to the Democrats of what's to come in November and with your help we can do that."

It's often said that behind every great man, there is an equally great woman and though the Burn's race in Pennsylvania fell short, the Djou race in Hawaii District 1is a shining example of how much Republican women, both young and old have begun to shape the face of modern-day elections in conservative America. Long gone are the days where man's better half in the GOP were simply relegated to backrooms where they stuffed envelopes, made phone calls, and arranged baked cookies on a silver platter. Today's Republican woman is out front and center, running campaigns, running for campaigns, and facilitating the outcomes of those campaigns. They bring vigor and organization, as well as a protective passion and zeal to their candidates that only comes from the maternal instinct for protection of children, God, and country that naturally runs so strongly in all of them. The results can be seen in the increasing numbers of women who are rising up through the ranks of grassroots leadership, campaign and organizational staffing, county and State committees, as well as those who are actually running for State and National office. As of this election cycle, 112 Republican women are running for congressional office according to the RNC and strong female candidates like Mary Fallin of Oklahoma and Carly Fiorina of California are joining the ranks of Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin who have already made their mark along with several others as this new kind of strong, conservative feminist woman who working and toiling, taking on the slings and arrows of the pioneer to bring about a new guard outside of the good ol' boy's club.





Carly and Mary, the new faces of GOP women.






Such women, I believe, aren't at all in competition with or opposed to men's leadership roles in the Republican Party but rather compliment and enhance those roles and fortunately they've been able to shed the bonds of yesteryear because as far as I'm concerned they can only be assets to the Party.

"The good news is that we have a Republican woman candidate over there as well," Lynch also informed me. "Her name is Ramsey Wharton running for a congressional seat and so we are going to be watching that one real close and making things happen there as well."

Ramsay Wharton is a former news anchorwoman who is running for the 2nd District seat in Hawaii. Indeed, another strong woman candidate who seems to be heading up a growing list of strong women candidates in the 2010 election cycle on the GOP side. It's a foregone conclusion the NFRW and it's state chapter in Hawaii will be sending all of it's forces this summer and fall to help secure another victory in a deep blue state.