Tea Partiers to Palin: Run for RNC Chair
Politico reports:
The Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips has sent a letter to former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin asking her to run for chairman of the Republican National Committee.
"In order for the Tea Party/Conservative movement to be successful, we have to have someone conservative running the GOP," Phillips told POLITICO. "She is the perfect candidate. If she does not try, I am afraid we will end up with just another establishment flunky running the party and the [Republicans in name only] will control the party again."
"She has a track record of cutting wasteful spending, which has occurred under the watch of Michael Steele," he added. "Finally, she is simply a rock star. She can raise money like no one else out there that I can think of."
In his letter to Palin, Phillips pleaded, “We need you as Chairman of the RNC. You have shown in the past no hesitation to take on the establishment...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."
The second-tier national tea party group has been plagued by reported financial troubles of its own, but under Phillips's leadership it has demonstrated an ability to maintain an outsized national political impact. Palin delivered the keynote speech at the group's first "Tea Party Convention" in February, which was broadcast live on a Saturday night by Fox News.
Roughly a half dozen candidates are vying to replace RNC Chairman Michael Steele, who has yet to announce if he is running for reelection.
The RNC race is an ultimate insider's game, with 85 votes from the 168 committee members needed to win the race. The current candidates from outside the national committee have struggled to gain traction. And some of the race's potential big name candidates – including former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and former Oklahoma GOP Gov. Frank Keating – have taken a pass.In his letter, Phillips focuses on much of the same criticism the current candidates have lobbed at Steele, contending that the RNC fundraising problems prevented the committee from maximizing GOP gains in the 2010 midterms.
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