Analysis: It’s Steele’s party — kind of

After a bumpy six months atop the Republican National Committee, chairman Michael Steele has asserted himself as a leader of a majority of the body’s members, though he still has to deal with a vocal and unhappy minority.

Steele came to power in January, the winner of a contentious battle that pitted conservatives against centrists, old bulls against young turks. After six ballots, Steele beat former South Carolina Republican Party chairman Katon Dawson, 91-77.

{mosads}But after a race in which loyalties to Steele, Dawson and the other three candidates ran deep, either man would have had to deal with a minority unhappy about his victory.

In Steele’s case, his win meant he would still have to deal with three subsets of committee members who had consistently opposed his candidacy.

Steele faced the RNC’s most conservative set, which had always questioned his ideological credentials; a group of RNC veterans, many of whom did not want to see an outsider take over (Steele was not a member of the committee when elected); and those who worried Steele would effectively hand over control of the RNC to the high-priced consultants who steered him to his triumph.

Those three groups spent months making Steele’s life miserable, in some cases working quietly behind the scenes to undermine his authority and in others leaking internal emails in which feuds between Steele and key RNC members spilled into the public realm.

But in working with the younger members who helped him to victory, Steele has lately turned a corner and consolidated power that had largely eluded him. At this weekend’s summer meeting in San Diego, two Steele allies were unanimously approved to take over as general counsel and chairman of the finance committee, while another close Steele associate, Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer, won a contentious battle for the rules committee with just one vote to spare.

During his few first rocky months, Steele was a gaffe machine, attracting headlines and doubt among GOP operatives that he was up to the job. But since then, Steele has become a vocal and effective critic against Democratic healthcare and economic stimulus proposals.

And even those who once made trouble for Steele have good things to say about his performance. Asked to evaluate Steele’s tenure, Indiana national committeeman Jim Bopp, who has had his run-ins with the chairman, offered effusive praise for Steele’s effort to pressure Democrats on healthcare reform.

RNC Treasurer and Arizona GOP chairman Randy Pullen, Massachusetts national committeeman Ron Kaufman and New Jersey national committeeman David Norcross, all of whom feuded with Steele over financial controls, said they were content with a resolution reinstating many of those controls — a resolution Steele publicly thanked the three men, among others, for working out.

Still, a vocal minority remains displeased with the chairman, presenting Steele with potentially stormy seas through which to navigate.

There is quiet grumbling from several state chairmen who believe they were promised financial assistance that has yet to arrive. And Steele’s close relationship with several consultants who have earned thousands of dollars in RNC business since he became chairman remains a point of contention for some who see that relationship as running counter to Steele’s promise to return power to the states.

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Greer’s close election, sources told The Hill, was indicative of the schisms that remain. Steele asked Greer to run, an endorsement the Florida chairman touted in his campaign, but Greer still drew two challengers seen as more conservative, and he very nearly missed winning on the first ballot, taking 27 of 51 votes.

And members delayed creation of an ethics committee to be headed by another Steele ally, Illinois national committeeman Pat Brady, in a vote at Friday’s general session. Though not a major blow to Steele, it does signify that the committee is unwilling to simply ratify his agenda without molding it themselves.

In the next six months — as he works to increase GOP attacks against Democratic initiatives — Steele’s true threat remains from within the very committee that elected him in January.