Racicot to leave post at RNC to move to Bush 2004 campaign (Ed Gillespie to replace him)

AP ^ | 5-5-03 | RON FOURNIER

[GraniteStateConservative]

Republican National Committee chairman Marc Racicot is expected to become chairman of President Bush's re-election campaign and the leading candidate to replace him as party leader is Washington lobbyist Ed Gillespie.

Racicot, the former Montana governor who was one of Bush's more forceful advocates during the 2000 Florida recount, could assume the campaign post as early as July when the Republican National Committee meets for its midyear meeting, said several Republican sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

[GraniteStateConservative]

[Sonny M]

I would much rather have preferred either Reed or Newt in this post, Reed has a lot of potential and is an awesome strategy guy in the Lee Atwater mold, with alot of Karl Rove thinking to go with it, while Newt, may not be the best politician, but he's a good pundit, a skilled debater and an excellent strategy guy for geting the base to come out and appealing on "kitchen table issues".

[GraniteStateConservative]

EDWARD W. GILLESPIE

Ed Gillespie is a founder and principal of Quinn Gillespie & Associates, a bipartisan public affairs firm that provides strategic advice, public relations services, and government representation to corporations, trade associations and issue-based coalitions.

Though only three years old, QGA has been ranked by both Influence and National Journal magazines as being among the top 10 most influential firms in Washington. Its client roster boasts major corporations like Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Daimler-Chrysler, Citigroup and Sony, and includes powerful trade associations like the American Hospital Association, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and the National Association of Realtors.

Gillespie is one of the most prominent and successful strategists in the Republican Party. In 2002, he was general strategist for Elizabeth Dole’s senate campaign in North Carolina, in which Dole garnered the biggest margin of victory of any Senate candidate in the state in over 25 years. Dole and former Clinton chief-of-staff Erskine Bowles combined to wage the most expensive senate race in the country last year, and the Dole campaign has been cited by numerous political analysts as one of the best of the election cycle.

Gillespie’s political work on behalf of President George W. Bush is well known, ranging from his management of the highly regarded convention program in Philadelphia in the summer of 2000 to his service as senior communications advisor in Austin to his aggressive spokesman role during the historic recount in Florida, to serving as communications director for the President’s inauguration in January of 2001.

In 1996, Gillespie served as Director of Communications and Congressional Affairs for the Republican National Committee under then Chairman Haley Barbour. Prior to that, he served for over a decade as a top aide to former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX). He was a principal drafter of the now famous “Contract with America,” which in 1994 swept Republicans to control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. Gillespie edited the paperback book Contract with America, which climbed to number two on the New York Times’ bestseller’s list in February 1995.

The 41-year-old New Jersey native is a graduate of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. While at CUA, he began his career on Capitol Hill as a Senate parking lot attendant. He is married to the former Cathy Hay, executive director of U.S. Rep. Joe Barton’s political action committee (the Texas Freedom Fund). The two met playing softball in the Capitol Hill League. They have three children: John Patrick, Carrie and Mollie Brigid.

Before forming QGA with former Clinton White House Counsel Jack Quinn, Gillespie was President and CEO of Policy Impact Communications.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Reed definitely wants the job. Newt is on the WH sh!t list for attacking Powell-- and by proxy, Bush himself-- over the diplomatic failures. The odd thing to me is that RNC co-chair Ann Wagner was passed over. I believe she is the current MO-GOP chair and MO's GOP is in pretty good shape.

[rs79bm]

I don't know this fellow myself, but who is in charge of appointing these people. Should it be the RNC Members?

[GraniteStateConservative]

It sort of is-- but they vote the way the puppeteers say to vote (Bush, Rove, etc.).

[M. Thatcher]

Nice enough guy, worked for Dick Armey. He's real boring, however, and he HAS NO CHIN. It's distracting.

[LurkerNoMore!]

Chin or no chin, I absolutely LOVE Gillespie!

[xm177e2]

Racicot is a good guy, an inclusive, liberty-minded man... the more influence he has, the better.

[M. Thatcher]

Too nice.

[DLfromthedesert]

Yeah, especially after he courted the rabble rouses at the "Human Rights" campaign; just what we Republicans need.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Reed should (will?) be a major player in the 2004 campaign. I hope he gets a lot more airtime this time around. He's terrific!

[LurkerNoMore!]

I dunno.... I've seen him hold his own pretty well. Maybe Celinda(?) Lake just made it appear that way.

[savedbygrace]

Bring back Haley Barbour. His image can be rehabilitated in short order. Haley was the most effective RNC leader in decades.

Bring back Haley.

[CedarDave]

The first problem he may have to solve is how to get W on the ballot in those states which have ballot candidate deadlines prior to the September 2004 Republican convention.

[republicanwizard]

He will be Governor of Mississippi.

[Sonny M]

I'm not so sure, if newt was really talking out of school to be honest with you. The fact is, he is on the defense policy board, and works closely with Rumsfeld on policy.

[fieldmarshaldj]

So good that he didn't bother to take down the horrid idiot Max Baucus when he was needed.

[kayak]

fyi