Greer floats potential RNC candidacy

Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer is once again considering a bid to head the national committee in the wake of the scandal surrounding Chip Saltsman and the “Barack the Magic Negro” parody.

In a statement, Greer criticized Saltsman, the chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party, for sending a CD that included the song as a Christmas present to Republican National Committee members. He also offered support for those RNC candidates who have criticized Saltsman.

{mosads}“As the GOP chairman in one of our nation’s most ethnically and culturally diverse states, I am especially disappointed by the inappropriate words and actions we’ve seen over the past few days,” Greer said in the statement.

“I am proud of those party leaders who have stood up in firm opposition to this type of behavior,” Greer’s statement read. “We can only achieve success if Republican leaders reject racial or any other acts that divide us and instead embrace what unites us as a nation.”

Greer has hired staffers who work on both African American and Hispanic voter outreach, and his African American and Hispanic Leadership Councils have attracted press attention in Florida.

Separately, he said in an e-mail to RNC members on Tuesday afternoon that he was taking under advisement comments that he enter the race. He thanked those he said were encouraging him to run for the top spot.

Greer flirted with a potential run for RNC chairman before his interest seemed to wane around the election. He has indicated he would like to broaden the party’s message and appeal to more centrist voters, a strategy that has gone largely overlooked as other candidates focus mostly on revitalizing the Reagan coalition.

Greer will not enter the race before Jan. 5, when Americans for Tax Reform is holding a debate in Washington, D.C., in order to listen to each of his potential rivals.

“The Republican Party faces a tremendous opportunity in the coming days. We cannot let this opportunity slip through our fingers,” Greer wrote to committee members. “To be successful, we must remain committed to our party’s values and principles, while focusing on the issues discussed at family dinner tables across the nation.”

In an interview with The Hill earlier on Tuesday, Greer said he was concerned that too much of the rhetoric coming from current candidates has to do with returning to basics.

“I don’t want to talk about going back to something, I want to talk about going forward,” Greer said. “We’ve got to be a party of ideas and focus on the issues that are important to voters.”