Republican Governors Openly Looking to Dump Michael Steele

Michael Steele's chances of returning as Republican National Committee chairman looked grim Thursday, after some of the nation's top GOP governors gave his first-term performance a bad review. In fact, they indicated that they would prefer new party leadership.

According to Politico, some of the 34 governors and governors-elect at the Republican Governors Association (RGA) meeting in San Diego Wednesday, when asked flat-out if there should be a new party chairman, had this to say:

• Haley Barbour, Mississippi: "Yes. ... To defeat an incumbent president, even one thats got the political problems of this one, the RNC has to operate at absolutely maximum capacity and this year they operated far, far, far below that in terms of fund-raising, in terms of grass-roots organization, and in terms of building strong, self-reliant state parties.
• Rick Perry, Texas: "In 2012, the RNC is going to play a very, very important role, so whoever they choose needs to be someone who truly has the ability to represent the party and is a highly capable individual from the standpoint of raising money and organization. And I know that Nick Ayers is a very capable young man.
• Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota: You have to have a high-functioning, effective ground game and the RNC has to be able to deliver that consistently every cycle and it appears ... that that didnt happen.

It's one thing for governors and big-name donors to grouse, notes Politico, but it's another for them to find a suitable alternative to Steele: "Even as the chairmans path appears to narrow, there has been no consensus around any one challenger and its beginning to worry Steele critics who fear a fractured vote may enable the incumbent to horse-trade his way to victory. The lack of a clear opponent even prompted one leader of the anti-Steele effort to go through the entire list of committee members who could run and ask: 'Are we missing somebody?'"