Michael Steele told Republican party leaders across the country today that one year after voters handed both houses of Congress and the White House to the Democrats, the GOP is poised to regain prominence on the political landscape.
In his “2009 Political Update,” an email sent to the party’s list of activists, Steele says the summer’s town hall meetings and next week’s elections in New Jersey in Virginia prove his first year at the helm of the GOP has been a success. He writes,
“Just one year ago, many political pundits had written the epitaph of the Republican Party. … Today, Republicans have begun to reestablish the trust of voters on a majority of issues; and, I am proud to say are turning an important corner and are moving forward with strength.”
Inside the document, Steele suggests are signs that the GOP still has a few corners to turn before it’s back to the ideological unanimity found during its years in absolute power over D.C..
Steele lays out where the party stood in the eyes of most observers at the start of his chairmanship in January, says its thanks to the Democrats that the GOP is resurgent:
“They claimed the nation had undergone a fundamental realignment from the center-right of the political spectrum toward the Democrats, and that the GOP had become nothing but a regional party – at best. … [But] as Americans’ opposition to the Democrats’ government-run health care experiment and out-of-control federal spending has continued to grow, President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have managed to pull off an astonishing hat-trick: disappointing Democrats, alienating Independents and energizing Republicans.”
As evidence of the party’s turnaround, Steele points to next week, when the GOP is almost certain to win the governor’s mansion in Virginia and could very possibly do the same in New Jersey. But he brings up another election coming up soon that showcases new cracks in the Republican Party infrastructure:
“As the Republican National Chairman, it is my job and responsibility to elect Republicans. In the special election in NY-23 the RNC has provided support to the NY state party to retain the seat vacated by former Rep. John McHugh in a district that President Obama carried in 2008.”
Overall, though, Steele concludes Obama is helping to unify the party he soundly defeated in 2008. As proof of his claim, Steele suggests that when it comes to GOP resurgence, money talks:
Finally, the RNC’s fundraising this year has been very successful. Dissatisfaction with President Obama’s big-government, over-reaching policies has certainly contributed to this success, but so has the RNC’s ability to engage our donors in a more creative way. In September the RNC raised $8.7 million – a record for an off-year election month -and the RNC’s year-to-date total is nearly $65 million with no debt.
