A few weeks ago we asked the men running to be Chairman of the RNC to respond to ten issues about which RedState has concerns. Previously Saul Anuzis responded. Yesterday, concurrent to releasing is Conservative Resurgence Plan, Ken Blackwell responded. Unfortunately, my internet connection died and I’m just now able to post his responses.

– Erick

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- Please state your qualifications for the job and why those qualifications make you the best choice.

First of all, I’d like to thank Erick Erickson and all of the contributors at RedState for giving all the RNC candidates the opportunity to share our vision for the Republican Party. I would also like to encourage all of you to take a look at my Conservative Resurgence Plan, which was released to RNC Members and to RedState yesterday. Many of my responses are also reflected in this comprehensive plan, and I encourage you to read the entire document so you can follow all the details.

Now to answer your question - if I’m elected the next Chairman of the RNC, I will be one of the most experienced and prepared new chairmen in our party’s history. As a candidate I’ve won 13 out of 17 races and was proud to serve as Ohio State Treasurer, Secretary of State, Republican nominee for Governor, Cincinnati Mayor, and now as a board member for many leading conservative activist and grassroots organizations. And when it comes to the ability to modernize the RNC, I fully embrace online activism and I have firsthand experience in bringing significant technological advancement to large organizations.

Now one of the most important parts of the job is serving as the national spokesman for the party, and in that area, I have more media experience than any other candidate. I’ve spent countless hours representing the Republican viewpoints and conservative ideology on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, the Sunday shows, national talk radio, and writing opinion columns for the Washington Times, Townhall.com, and National Review.

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Just got this in email. The leadership of the CRNC is coming out for Blackwell.

Tell ya what, I’ll give you my frank and candid thoughts later today on the subject. It’s sure to piss off everybody to one degree or another.

Members of the Republican National Committee:

After two difficult election cycles our party is at a crossroads. We have obligations to our ideals and our constituents to evaluate our strengths and weakness, successes and failures, and set ourselves on a path of renewal and revitalization. We must take this opportunity to elect a leader with a bold vision and the strength to carry it through. We need a leader that will stop allowing the Republican Party to surrender to the other party on campus and online. It is our opinion and the opinion of a large part of our organization that, of the many qualified candidates for RNC Chairman, the candidate best suited to take on these new challenges is Ken Blackwell.

Ken understands the importance of increasing our outreach to young and first time voters who will be making formative choices in the next few elections that will shape their voting habits for the rest of their lives. We cannot afford to continue to ignore an entire generation of voters. Ken also understands that we must increase our capabilities online if we’re going to inform and persuade voters effectively and remain competitive with Internet and email fundraising.

We believe that Ken Blackwell has the convictions to make him a great spokesman for our party and that he will drive us forward towards successes in elections at all levels of government. That belief is further strengthened after watching his performance in the debate yesterday. As the leaders of tomorrow’s Republican Party we respectfully ask that you consider supporting Ken and cast a vote for the next generation of Republicans.

Charlie Smith, National Chairman
Blake Harris, National Co-Chairman
Dan Carlson, National Secretary
Esther Clark, National Treasurer
Tom Jardon, Southern Vice-Chairman

Justin Zatkoff, Michigan College Republican Chairman
Taylor Hall, South Carolina College Republican Chairman
Lance Kennedy, Texas College Republican Chairman
Chandler Harris, Alabama College Republican Chairman
Ed Cox, Utah College Republican Chairman
Jeremy Hagen, Missouri College Republican Chairman
Rudy Perciful, Louisiana College Republican Chairman
Terence Grado, New Jersey College Republican Chairman
Matt Wharton, Arizona College Republican Chairman
Meagan Szydlowski, Illinois College Republican Chairman
Erica Castelo, Colorado College Republican Chairman
Richard Walters, Mississippi College Republican Chairman
Reece Hrizuk, Oregon College Republican Chairman
Brand Kroeger, District of Columbia College Republican Chairman

Ken Blackwell has just released his conservative resurgence plan.

There are a few things to note:

1. His plan is explicitly about returning the GOP to the conservative grassroots, which I agree is where it needs to be.

2. His plan includes a sizable technology plan to put the grassroots in charge of the party.

3. Like a true “states rights” guy, his plan involves significantly divesting the RNC apparatus inside the beltway of power and sending it out to the states.

I’m a bit concerned by the last point because I suspect some of the components he’d want to decentralize need to be, unfortunately, left in DC, but it is quite a solid plan.

Ken Blackwell will also have up his answers to RedState in a bit. I had intended to write about this earlier, but my internet has gone out and I’ve had to string together my cell phone to my laptop to get a connection. I’ll have more shortly.

But go check out his plan. I suspect you’ll like it.

One is a 527, the other is a PAC. My failure to distinguish between the two resulted in an incomplete portrayal of Michael Steele.

I stand by my criticism of Steele, a candidate for Republican National Committee chairman, but I should have explained the difference between GOPAC Inc., a 527 tax-exempt organization, and GOPAC America, a political committee organized to elect candidates.

Yesterday I cited campaign finance data related to GOPAC America, criticizing a $5,000 expenditure to Steele for Maryland, even though he wasn’t on the ballot in 2008. Steele created GOPAC America to play a role in federal elections. GOPAC gave 11 candidates seeking U.S. House seats nearly $20,000. Six won and five lost.

There’s more to the story. GOPAC Inc. is the organization founded by former Delaware Gov. Pete du Pont after the 1978 elections. Steele took over as chairman in 2007. GOPAC Inc. executive director David Avella told me the organization raised $8 million under Steele’s direction. Among its accomplishments: helping Oklahoma Republicans take control of the State Senate for the first time in history; aiding Tennessee Republicans in gain control of the State Senate and House; and assisting Montana Republicans gain control in the State Senate. Eighteen of its 25 “Rising-Star Republicans” won election.

GOPAC Inc. plays an important role training Republicans. Steele has certainly helped boost the organization’s fundraising. That certainly makes me feel better about him, but it doesn’t change my mind about his candidacy for the RNC.

I certainly admire the fervent, almost Andrew Sullivan-like cheerleading among many conservative bloggers and pundits on behalf of former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell’s candidacy, but it’s important to give serious consideration to the facts, particularly when debating the future of the Party and the next Chairman of the Republican National Committee, and sadly, few have.

Two narratives, with a staggering deference to the candidates’ records, have emerged in recent weeks as the clearest obstacles in Michael Steele’s path to securing the top Republican post, the first of which being his association with the centrist Republican Leadership Council, and second, of course, the notion, that while serving as its Chairman, GOPAC underperformed in fundraising, messaging, and candidate recruitment.

Republicans, believe it or not, have an opportunity to build a broad coalition, one unified under the basic tenants of conservatism – strong national defense, limited government interference, and greater personal liberties – but if we’re to survive, let alone build that coalition, the Party must allow for a diversity of opinion. And correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m unaware of any other method of building coalitions aside from reaching out to those with whom you have disagreements. After losing independents and moderates to the Obama campaign by a margin of 8 percent, Republicans simply can no longer afford to be tone deaf, and Steele, I dare say, understands this. His vision of a revitalized the Party is not one where we’ve sacrificed our conservative principles, but rather one where we’ve effectively advocated for them, even to unfriendly audiences, an act some have wrongly characterized as “tratorious.”

With Senator John Danforth and Governor Christine Todd Whitman, Steele, who won the endorsement of the National Right to Life organization in his bid for US Senate, worked to establish the RLC, a moderate group whose stated purpose is to advocate for “fiscally conservative, socially inclusive” policies and Republican candidates nationwide. However, when the rubber met the road, the RLC proved more successful at marginalizing social conservatives than in offering an “inclusive” agenda for Republicans. After resigning from the RLC’s executive board in July, Steele told the Washington Times that, despite working to make a more inclusive, productive, and vibrant Republican Party, he could not, in good conscious, further “alienate people” from the movement.

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We need to mobilize. It is extremely important.

As you are probably aware, Americans for Tax Reform is having a debate tomorrow for the candidates for RNC Chairman. Individuals can vote for the best questions to be asked.

Paultards have gone into the ATR website to disrupt the process. And it is very clear that they have absolutely no freaking clue what the RNC Chairman actually does; they’re asking a bunch of irrelevant hoo-hah. Let’s take action.

Below are the questions Patrick Ruffini and I agree are very relevant to the debate.

1. Please register at the website then vote for the questions below.

2. Clicking the names of the people in this email will take you to their questions.

3. Vote for each of these questions.

4. Vote down any questions that reference Ron Paul, the Federal Reserve, the Gold Standard, Austrian economists, crazy ass conspiracy theories, the Illuminati, the Zionist conspiracy to make Ron Paul incontinent, etc. [NOTE to the Paultards: none of those questions is relevant to the RNC Chairman's race except for the couple listed below the fold here.]

Let’s mobilize.

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Among the candidates for Republican National Committee chairman, there’s no question Michael Steele is among the most recognizable — a political celebrity thanks to his work for Fox News and run for U.S. Senate in 2006.

Aside from his political celebrity — and knack for being a good talking head — there’s little else about the man that would make him a good chairman. While much has been written about his candidacy and the reasons conservatives should be skeptical, time is running out to convince the 168 members of the RNC they should steer clear of him. Here’s why:

Steele boasts that his chairmanship of GOPAC qualifies him to run the RNC. He cites GOPAC’s work to elect Republicans as good preparation. So how did GOPAC fare under Steele’s leadership? During the 2008 cycle, GOPAC gave 11 candidates seeking U.S. House seats nearly $20,000. Six won and five lost. (See my update, “The Tale of Two GOPACs.”)

Among GOPAC’s expenditures in 2008 was $5,000 to Steele for Maryland, even though Steele wasn’t on the ballot. The money probably went to pay off Steele’s 2006 campaign debt. It also happened to be the third largest expenditure for GOPAC, raising questions about the organization’s priorities under his leadership.

Money has been a problem for Steele in the past. Jennifer Skalka of National Journal’s Hotline reported that when Steele’s consulting business struggled financially, two banks threatened to place liens on his house. Although Steele cleared his debts, these financial issues are factors that must be considered for anyone seeking the RNC chairmanship.

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A cross section of conservative leaders today threw their backing to Ken Blackwell for the job of Republican National Committee chairman. The group, which was organized by the Council for National Policy, includes 23 economic, social and foreign policy conservatives.

The 168 members of the RNC will elect the next chairman later this month. Among those signing the letter was Morton Blackwell, a Republican national committeeman from Virginia. Blackwell (no relation to Ken) distributed a list of 37 questions for the RNC chairman candidates. All six completed the survey.

Ken Blackwell’s answers were among the most comprehensive. The former Ohio secretary of state and treasurer has strong ties to conservatives dating several decades. He currently serves on the boards of Club for Growth, National Rifle Association and National Taxpayers Union, and he is a fellow at Family Research Council. He was vice chairman of the Platform Committee at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis.

The endorsement followed a 90-minute discussion Friday. I was invited to participate in the meeting and signed the letter. Some of the endorsers, including Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly, have already publicly stated their support for Blackwell. Others were encouraged to reach out to grassroots conservatives in hopes of swaying the 168 members of the RNC.

Those signing the letter include:

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This just in:

Phyllis Schlafly Endorses Ken Blackwell for RNC Chairman
Washington, D.C.- Eagle Forum President and Republican National Coalition
for Life National Chairman Phyllis Schlafly today endorsed the candidacy of
Ken Blackwell for chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Not yet known whether this is a general Eagle Forum endorsement, or just Schlafy’s.

If you haven’t, please be sure to go to www.rncdebate.org and submit a question. Let me give you some background explanation and then I’ll pose my question.

FLS Connect was the phone vendor for Bush 2000, Bush-Cheney 2000, Bush-Cheney 2004, and McCain-Palin (though not in the primary for that one).

According to NRCC records, the NRCC paid FLS Connect $1,022,630.51 during the last cycle.

The RNC, which did all the hard work of putting together the much touted Voter Vault program sold the data to FLS and now has a very pricey lease back from FLS. Voter Vault is also pretty much crap these days. After all that investment and now a costly lease back program, I’m told the data isn’t that reliable any more.

Rich Beeson is the Political Director of the RNC. Before going to the RNC (and after leaving the RNC I’m sure), Beeson was a partner at FLS.

According to Open Secrets, FLS Connect is the third largest recipient of expenditures at the RNC.

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