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All six candidates for the Republican National Committee Chairmanship will face off in debate on January 3, 2011. What a way to start off the year.

Current Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele has confirmed that he will participate in the January 3 debate to be co-hosted by Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), the Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) and the Daily Caller, making our debate the first in which all six RNC Chair candidates will face-off.

Also confirmed for the debate, Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus, former Michigan Republican Party chairman Saul Anuzis, former RNC political director Gentry Collins and former ambassador to  Luxembourg Ann Wagner have also agreed to pre-debate interviews with SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser and National Organization for Marriage (NOM) Chair and American Principles Project board member Maggie Gallagher.  (Full interviews can be viewed here.)  Former RNC official Maria Cino has also confirmed her attendance to the debate.

I’ll post up the video interviews of the candidates in separate posts.

You can submit and vote on questions to be asked – prizes too, if your question is chosen.

The public can vote for questions addressing the Life issue to be asked at the debate on RNCDebate.org.  The event will take place in the Ballroom of the National Press Club and stream live online at RNCdebate.org between 1:00pm and 2:30pm ET.

Reince Priebus and Michael Steele

Looks like it.

Conversations with a number of strategists close to the RNC – and its 168 voting members – suggest that none of the six candidates in the running are anywhere close to securing the 85 votes needed to claim the chairmanship.

But two tiers of candidates have begun to emerge, with the top three seen as potential winners and the bottom three regarded as longer shots. Given the number of undecided voters and the unpredictability of the ballot process, though, it’s hard to count anyone out at the moment.

Chris Cilliza ranks the candidates.

But, it is difficult to do an accurate whip count at this time.

Now, if Sarah Palin weighs into this race who will she support?

Michael Steele?

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele speaks during a Republican election night results watch rally, in Washington, November 2, 2010

The National Review makes the case.

Say what you will about him — Michael Steele plays by nobody else’s rules. He shocked the political world on Monday night by announcing he’d run for reelection as chairman of the Republican National Committee. We admire his pluck, but not his judgment. It’s time for someone else to run the RNC.

The party — and the country — can’t afford to hope for another political bailout in 2012, a cycle that will be even more important than 2010. Republicans will be looking to defend, consolidate, and expand legislative gains, and not just President Obama’s agenda, but the president himself, will be on the ballot. It is thus crucial that every GOP institution be running on all cylinders. For all the Herculean work of the outside groups, there are certain tasks for which only the party committee is suited, given its ability to coordinate with state parties. If nothing else, the subpar reputation the RNC has earned under Steele’s leadership will make it impossible for the committee to work at its optimum.

Steele’s poor performance as chairman has had one fortunate side effect — it has created a robust field of alternatives. It gives us no pleasure to say this, but none of them would be worse than Steele, and we believe any of them would be better. Someone else deserves a chance at the top of the RNC.

Michael Steele should declare success, secure another gig, perhaps on Fox News, write a book and leave the RNC.

As I said before – from ABC News.

Sarah Palin isn’t running…for one job at least.  She doesn’t appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee.

The activist group Tea Party Nation, planned on sending a letter to Palin pleading for her to run.

“We need you as Chairman of the RNC. You have shown in the past no hesitation to take on the establishment,” reads a draft of the letter posted on the Tea Party Nation web-site. “You did it in Alaska. If we end up with establishment control of the GOP and their support for an establishment candidate in 2012, Obama and the socialists will have won.”

But in an exclusive written statement to ABC News, Palin says:

“I respect the desire to have someone in charge of the RNC who understands the wishes of the conservative grassroots and understands that power resides with the people and not the vested interests in DC. However, the primary role of the RNC chair seems be that of fundraiser-in-chief, and there are others who would probably be much more comfortable asking people for money than I would be, and they would definitely enjoy it more.”

A thanks but NO thanks. End of story.

RNC Can’t Pay Its Bills — Cites ‘Cash Flow’ Problem

“The Republican National Committee, the GOP’s fundraising and organizational arm, is facing a “cashflow challenge” and can’t pay all of its bills on time. In a memo Tuesday, RNC Chief Administrative Officer Boyd Rutherford wrote, “We will not be able to pay off the vendors this week. We will be slow in paying as we are having a cashflow challenge. Everyone will be slow paid until after the first of the year.”The acknowledgment by Rutherford of the RNC’s money woes comes at a bad time for the group’s chairman, Michael Steele, who already faces several potential challengers for another two-year term, writes the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza. Aside from Steele’s verbal gaffes, the cash-flow issue is likely to re-open the debate about his financial stewardship, the Post said.”

Probably the final straw for a Michael Steele re-election bid as Republican National Committee Chairman.

tags: RNC Michael_Steele

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

The participants are Gentry Collins, Chris Healy, Saul Anuzis, and Ann Wagner. Maria Cino was a no-show, although she anounced the endorsement of Dick Cheney this morning.