The RNC Debate

This past Monday, Americans For Tax Reform, The Daily Caller and the Susan B. Anthony List held a debate between the five candidates seeking to become the next chairman of the Republican Party (friendly warning: you'll need a lot of megabytes on your computer, as the video is almost 100 minutes long).



Hosted by ATR's Grover Norquist and The Daily Caller's Tucker Carlson, the debate started a little past 1 pm with opening remarks followed by a series of questions asked of the candidates, then a lightning round of questions, a brief round of follow up questions, and concluded with closing statements.

The Candidates


Maria Cino - Hearing about her past support of pro-abortion groups and causes, I came into the debate opposed to her bid for Chairman.  She discussed of the need for strong state parties, cited her past work in the GOP as her qualifications, stated support for traditional marriage and named McCain-Feingold as the greatest failure of the GOP.  However, she claimed she would work with pro-life groups to get out the vote and supports defunding Planned Parenthood (something I doubt because of her past), listed President Obama's obesity crusade as something she agreed with, and left me feeling uncomfortable with her answer about whether she had lobbied for ObamaCare.  She remains the one candidate I wouldn't support.

Michael Steele - Coming into the debate with doubts about whether he would be the right choice for another two years, I have to say listening to Chairman Steele didn't erase the doubts.  During the debate, he cited the success of 2010 as the reason for why he should be re-elected (even though the 2010 victories would've happened regardless of who was leading the GOP, in my opinion).  In his opening remarks, he claimed the problems facing the GOP weren't as serious as made out to be, but it wasn't a totally satisfactory answer, as there's the matter of a $20 million debt facing the GOP.  The upside to Steele's candidacy is the fact he has been a consistent defender of Sarah Palin, and he held his ground well during the debate when discussing the 72-hr. get-out-the-vote program.  As with Ms. Cino, however, I came out of the debate with no change in opinion of the current Chairman.

Reince Priebus - This was one candidate I could say I had never heard of before, so I didn't have the slightest idea of what to expect.  Currently serving as the Chairman of the Wisconsin GOP, Mr. Priebus spoke of the need to “govern like we campaign”.  He acknowledged the Tea Parties and the conservative movement more often than the other candidates, continually stressed the need for unity with the conservative movement, and stated his opinion the GOP Chairman should be an unabashed and outspoken conservative.  He also cited his record as Chairman of the Wisconsin GOP and the successes of last year's elections there as qualifications.  Overall, he sounds like he has his head on straight, but words can be used real cheaply, so I remain uncertain about whether he's the best candidate.

Ann Wagner - Thanks to a few conservative websites, her name was familiar, albeit not much else.  Like Mr. Priebus mostly, Mrs. Wagner acknowledged the conservative movement (further saying there would be a place at her table for the Tea Parties), and also correctly noted who won last year's elections (the Tea Parties, of course).  The focus of her talk was on restoring the party's credibility with donors and especially the voters, as well as fully funding election victory programs at the state level (believing the 72-hr GOTV program “doesn't cut it anymore”) and restoring a top donor program to help solve what she called the GOP's budget crisis.  She comes across as sounding like a common sense conservative candidate, and I didn't dislike anything she said (or the fact she has the most guns of the five candidates!), but also as with Mr. Priebus, I know virtually nothing about her and so cannot readily say yes to supporting her.

Saul Anuzis - Formerly the Chairman of the GOP in Michigan, he has been (with the exception of Michael Steele) the most mentioned amongst the candidates for national Chairman.  While all the candidates noted the necessity for fundraising, it was fundraising that served as the epicenter of Mr. Anuzis's answers during the debate, especially when citing the number one task for the GOP and his qualifications as a candidate.  I liked some of his answers, including his response to the question on what the President did you agreed with (going on vacation), on balancing the desire to elect good candidates and “electoral reality” (balances aren't needed, the primaries work, trust the voters) and on the GOP's greatest failure in the last 10 years (stopped acting like Republicans).  He also may hold some appeal for libertarians, as he cited Ludwig von Mises as a hero and Bastiat's The Law as his favorite book during the debate.

Conclusion

I admit if I were one of the 168 individuals eligible to vote this coming Friday, my first choice would be Saul Anuzis (although I have no objections to either Ann Wagner or Reince Priebus), but nevertheless, I'm still not 100% certain if any of these three would lead the Republican Party as the party of conservative principles and not as the lite version of the Democrat Party.  For the sake of continuing success for conservatives and libertarians in 2012 and beyond, I hope the next Chairman will fit the bill.