The campaign for Republican chairman has emerged as the hottest competition in town, prompting an array of party stalwarts, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, to bet on a candidate in the race, and others, like Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, to try to influence the outcome.
The contest is doing far more than simply filling a void that the midterm elections have left behind. It is serving as a fresh reminder that Republicans do not believe they can rely on outsourcing the nuts and bolts of their politics ? as they did to a certain degree this year ? if they hope to reclaim the White House.
Sarah Palin can have a major voice in the nation?s political discourse with little more than a Facebook posting. Candidates find it easier to raise money from and communicate with supporters using the Internet. Grass-roots movements like the Tea Party not only exist outside traditional party structures, they are also disdainful of them. Independent groups like those affiliated with Karl Rove in the 2010 election cycle can fulfill many of the functions of party committees, including singling out races and helping to turn out voters.
For all that, establishment Republicans still believe they need a well-organized, well-financed party machine if they hope to achieve their goal of limiting President Obama to one term. To them, the lesson of the midterm elections was that a conservative grass-roots movement is important, but only if accompanied by the solid foundation that an old-school political party provides.
They see the battle over the party?s leadership ? once a sleepy, internal affair ? as a major conflict with outsized implications for the 2012 presidential election, as well as a chance for the party?s presidential hopefuls to gain some control over the party?s direction.
A day after Michael Steele announced that he had no intention of stepping aside as chairman, the criticism of his two-year tenure at the committee intensified. Some of his rivals who are challenging him for his position fanned out across the country, paying face-to-face visits to the 168 members who will elect the next chairman when the committee convenes on Jan. 14.
?One of Michael Steele?s legacies is that he made the R.N.C. largely irrelevant in the 2010 election cycle,? said Tom Fetzer, chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party. ?The next chairman is going to have to work really hard to restore the committee to relevancy and fix the financial disaster that Michael Steel has left in his wake.?
The outbreak of activity in Republican circles on Tuesday, which stretched from coalition to coalition, underscored the notion that the party chairmanship remained a highly desired platform, even in an era where political figures have learned that they no longer need to rely on a rigid hierarchy to find success.
The central apparatus of the Republican Party, which for years was seen as the gold standard of politics that even Democrats envied for its organizational abilities, has steadily slipped into the background.
?The R.N.C. cannot misfire on fund-raising again and hope someone else will do the job for us,? said Reince Priebus, chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party, and a former ally of Mr. Steele, who is among the candidates for national chairman. ?We cannot run the risk of a second term of President Obama and his liberal companions with a weakened R.N.C.?
For contenders like Mr. Priebus, who has emerged as a leading alternative to Mr. Steele, the public campaign for chairman is a delicate one.
Not only have the candidates refrained from aggressively criticizing Mr. Steele ? there is plenty of criticism to go around from other Republican officials ? they also are inclined to try and remain friendly with as many committee members as possible because the balloting takes place in a series of consecutive rounds and being someone?s second-choice could be nearly as important as being the first.
Gentry Collins, who resigned as the committee?s political director last month after issuing a blistering assessment of Mr. Steele?s financial oversight at the R.N.C., is seeking to accentuate the positive as he competes with his former boss for the top job. He unveiled his Web site on Tuesday, which makes no specific mention of Mr. Steele, and posted a picture on Twitter as he arrived in Pennsylvania to meet with Republican officials.
Ann Wagner, a longtime Republican leader from Missouri and a former ambassador to Luxembourg under President George W. Bush, welcomed Mr. Steele to the race. She added, ?But this is not about Michael Steele ? it is about a fully funded, fully functional R.N.C. and winning in 2012.?
Mr. Steele did not respond to interview requests on Tuesday, but he unveiled a Web site that outlines the party?s accomplishments in the midterm elections.
?We are better, stronger and prouder,? said Mr. Steele, who is believed to have secured the support of at least 40 members of the committee ? more than most of his rivals ? but about half of the votes he would need to win.
The chairman?s race is unfolding just as Republican leaders had hoped to restore a sense of order, cohesion and discipline to the party after a raucous midterm election season that often pitted the party establishment against grass-roots activists and the Tea Party movement.
Republican leaders in Congress and prospective 2012 Republican presidential candidates were preparing to quietly weigh in on the race, but purposefully avoiding being seen as crowning a favorite for fear of dooming their candidacy.
Maria Cino, a veteran Republican operative who served in Mr. Bush?s administration and was the guest of a fund-raising event sponsored last week by Mr. Cheney, argued that a new direction was urgently needed for the party. She said the committee was besieged by ?very serious issues: massive debt, outdated technology, diminished donor support and a non-existent voter registration program.?