Posted on 12/13/2010 2:38:17 PM PST by nickcarraway
Gentry Collins, a former top aide to current Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele who resigned as political director of the RNC last month in protest of Steele’s leadership, officially announced his bid for chairman on Monday.
“My campaign for Chairman is based on a plan for the future, not a critique of the past,” Collins wrote in a letter to committee members. “I have a plan to strengthen our party, reclaim the RNC's place as the premier political organization in the country, and raise the resources we need to compete with President Obama’s fundraising machine.”
The announcement comes on the same day that Steele plans to announce his own decision on whether to run for re-election in a conference call with members of the committee.
Collins becomes the fifth officially-declared candidate for the job. He joins Saul Anuzis, the former chairman of the Michigan GOP; Ann Wanger, former head of the Missouri Republican Party; Reince Priebus, chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party; Maria Cino, a veteran of the Bush administration.
Collins quit his RNC post in mid-November and his resignation letter offered what amounted to a scathing assessment of Steele’s job performance.
Collins charged that the committee, under Steele's leadership, had “allowed its major donor base to wither,” spent far too much money on fundraising rather than winning elections and squandered opportunities to help Republican candidates in key races during the 2010 election cycle.
“Sadly, if left on its current path, the RNC will not be a productive force in the 2012 campaign to deny President Obama a second term, retain our House majority and elect a Senate majority,” Collins warned in a five-page memo addressed to Steele and circulated to members of the RNC executive committee.
“In the previous two non-presidential cycles, the RNC carried over $4.8 million and $3.1 million respectively in cash reserve balances into the presidential cycles,” Collins wrote in the letter. “In stark contrast, we enter the 2012 presidential cycle with 100% of the RNC’s $15 million in lines of credit tapped out, and unpaid bills likely to add millions to that debt.”
In his announcement message on Monday, Collins highlighted the support of several high-profile RNC committee members, including Iowa Republican Party chairman Matt Strawn and Connecticut GOP chair Chris Healy.
"Gentry Collins will provide leadership that the RNC needs to defeat the Obama political machine,” Strawn said in a statement. “Gentryʼs leadership will provide the focus,financing and expertise to both return the RNC to prominence and give the states the necessarytools to elect a Republican president.”
According to his campaign, Collins has already traveled to more than a dozen states to meet with committee members and is planning more in-person visits this week.
Collins was Romney’s guy in Iowa. The fix is in.
If the Republican Party was serious about growing and winning, they would court Sarah Palin to become Chairman of the RNC.
WOW! would that shake things up - and all to the good.
FR has proven to be a top Tea Party media favorite—I can't count how many times I have read ideas here first before they became contemporary conservative dogma—dogma that resulted in an historical electoral landslide that demanded the evil forces of the Left to STOP RIGHT THERE!!!
(Of course the RINO elite ignore us only a little bit less than the Dems--but that's okay we will deal with them later) That was then and I believe FR is now approaching a peculiar zenith of influence that scared liberals and should be scared RINOs now perusing these pages--seeking the gist of the true modern conservative soul and how pissed and who they are pissed at are--are desperate to comprehend.. Both RINOS and Democrats want "Net Neutrality" REAL bad before the prez primaries BECAUSE of Free Republic.
JMHO but I believe Michael Steele fell into a den of hyenas when he became Chair of the RNC. During his watch the GOP won back the House and almost the Senate; for which he will get no credit whatsoever. He had prior experience running the Maryland GOP party (a seriously blue State) which did not prepare him for the RINOs and backstabbers in National politics.
Too bad - he is a good and decent man - and we know there really is no place in the GOP for those character traits.
I remember when Gentry was an intern back in the day.
Maryland has a GOP party?
Who’d have known?
Steele is a RINO who got his job to blunt Obammy. Steele and Obammy would NEVER have gotten their present positions werre they not black.
An intern where? The Yale rowing club?
Exposure is what will do this guy in. Romney no thanks!
Who?
Haha. He’s actually a pretty good guy. I can’t remember what candidate he worked for now.
Were it not for the Tea Party, I'm not even sure that the GOP would have taken back the House or made gains in the Senate. The GOP seemed to have no definable message, although coming up with one shouldn't have been that difficult. This and the financial problems the party is still having should be enough to choose a replacement for Steele. The problem is, the replacement is likely to be a loser RINO.
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