Republican National Committee Chairmanship
Mehlman was Bush's choice to replace Ed Gillespie as the chair of the Republican National Committee and was elected to the post on January 19, 2005.
Mehlman announced after the November 2006 general election that he would not seek re-election to another term as Republican National Chairman. One of his top deputies, RNC political Director Michael DuHaime, announced in December 2006 that he would become campaign manager for Rudy Giuliani's 2008 presidential campaign.
Mehlman addressed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) a full year before Bush addressed the civil rights organization. In his address to the NAACP on July 14, 2005 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Mehlman apologized for the Republican Party's failure to reach out to the black community in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, stating, "Some Republicans gave up on winning the African-American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization... I am here as Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong." In a CNN interview a couple of days after the speech, he reluctantly mentioned the "Southern strategy" by name.
Although Mehlman's speech seemed to suggest a new approach towards the African-American community, most have considered the approach to be unsuccessful, with several polls indicating that Republicans have not improved in terms of African-American approval. A Washington Post poll shows that Bush's approval rating among African Americans fell to two percent at one point, and a report card issued by the NAACP gave "F's" to a majority of Republicans in the 109th Congress, although the grading was based upon positions assumed to be liberal African-American issues or liberal issues in general.
As the head of the RNC, Mehlman played a key role, along with Karl Rove, in executing the Republican Party's long-term, yet ultimately unsuccessful, plan for electoral dominance. This is discussed at length in Peter Wallsten and Tom Hamburger's book, One Party Country. Ken Mehlman voluntarily stepped down as Chairman of the RNC at the end of 2006. He was replaced by Mike Duncan and Mel Martinez.
Read more about this topic: Ken Mehlman
Famous quotes containing the words republican, national and/or committee:
“The Republican party makes even its young men seem old; the Democratic Party makes even its old men seem young.”
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965)
“We love the indomitable bellicose patriotism that sets you apart; we love the national pride that guides your muscularly courageous race; we love the potent individualism that doesn’t prevent you from opening your arms to individualists of every land, whether libertarians or anarchists.”
—Tommaso Marinetti (1876–1944)
“The absence on the panel of anyone who could become pregnant accidentally or discover her salary was five thousand dollars a year less than that of her male counterpart meant there was a hole in the consciousness of the committee that empathy, however welcome, could not entirely fill.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1953)