Michael Steel; His Background

Michael S. Steele (born October 19, 1958) is an American politician and lawyer. He was elected chairman of the Republican National Committee on January 30, 2009, and is the first African-American to hold the position. Prior to this, Steele served as chairman of GOPAC and worked as a partner at the law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf. He also served as Lieutenant Governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2007 under Governor Robert Ehrlich. Steele was the first African American to serve in a Maryland state-wide office and the first Republican lieutenant governor in the state. At the time he was the highest-ranking elected African American Republican in the United States. Steele ran for a Maryland United States Senate seat being vacated by retiring senator Paul Sarbanes, but he lost the 2006 election to Democratic Congressman Ben Cardin.

Early Life

Steele was born on October 19, 1958, at Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George's County. He spent his childhood in the Petworth neighborhood of Northwest Washington, D.C. which Steele has described as a small, stable and racially integrated community that insulated him from some of the problems elsewhere in the city. He was one of two children raised by mother Maebell Turner and stepfather John Turner. Steele’s sister Monica later married and divorced former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson. Steele attended Archbishop Carroll Roman Catholic High School in Northeast Washington, D.C. While at Carroll, Steele participated in the Glee Club, the National Honor Society and many of the school’s drama productions. During his senior year, 1976–1977, he won the election for student council president. Steele won a scholarship to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In his first year there, Steele was elected class president and was a member of the fencing team. He struggled academically, however, while pursuing a major in biology and was nearly kicked out of the university at the end of the year. After garnering A's in summer classes at George Washington University, Steele was allowed to continue at Johns Hopkins, and he eventually earned a bachelor's degree in international relations in 1981. After college, Steele spent three years as a seminarian in the Order of St. Augustine in preparation for the priesthood. He entered the Augustinian Friars Seminary at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. As a seminarian, he taught freshman world history and senior economics for one year at Malvern Prep School in Malvern, Pennsylvania, but ultimately decided on a career in law and he left the Seminary prior to taking the vows. Steele then entered the Georgetown University Law Center and in 1991, he received his Juris Doctor degree. He worked as a corporate securities associate at the Washington, D.C. office of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. From 1991 to 1997, Steele specialized in financial investments for Wall Street underwriters, working at Cleary’s Tokyo, Japan office focusing on major product liability litigation and at its London office on corporate matters. Steele left the law firm and founded the Steele Group, a business and legal consulting firm. Steele and his wife Andrea have two sons, Michael and Drew.

Political development

Steele’s mother was a widowed laundress who, he stated, worked for minimum wage rather than accept public assistance. Steele grew up in a Democratic household. However, as a young man he switched to the Republican Party. After joining the Republican Party, Steele became chairman of the Prince George's County Republican Central Committee. In 1995, the Maryland Republican Party selected him as Maryland State Republican Man of the Year. He worked on several political campaigns, was an Alternate Delegate to the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego and a Delegate to the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia that ultimately chose the George W. Bush ticket. In December 2000, Steele was elected chairman of the Maryland Republican Party, becoming the first African American ever to be elected chairman of any state Republican Party.

Lieutenant Governor of Maryland

In 2002, then-Congressman Robert Ehrlich selected Steele as his running mate and nominee for Lieutenant Governor in the campaign against Democrat Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who was then the Lieutenant Governor (under Governor Parris Glendening). Steele resigned his chairmanship of the Maryland Republican Party to campaign full-time. In endorsing Townsend, the Baltimore Sun praised her running mate, Charles R. Larson, for his experience and expertise, and added: "By contrast, Mr. Ehrlich's running mate, state GOP chairman Michael S. Steele, brings little to the team but the color of his skin." In the September primary election, Ehrlich and Steele had no serious opposition. In the November 2002 general election, even though Maryland traditionally votes Democratic and had not elected a Republican Governor in almost 40 years, the Townsend campaign was tainted by problems with outgoing governor Glendening's personal life. The Ehrlich-Steele ticket won, 51% to 48%. Steele’s most prominent efforts for the Ehrlich administration were reforming the state’s Minority Business Enterprise program and chairing Governor Ehrlich’s Commission on Quality Education in Maryland. While opposed to the death penalty, Steele endured criticism for not standing firmly against Ehrlich's support of the punishment, despite claims of racial inequities in its administration.

National prominence

Recently, Steele has attained national prominence due to his stature as a successful elected conservative Republican African American and his public speaking. At the 2004 Republican National Convention, Steele gave the Republican counterpoint to the Democrats' Barack Obama in a keynote address, Steele's first major national exposure. In April 2005, President Bush chose Steele as one of three members of the United States delegation at the investiture of Pope Benedict XVI at the ceremonial mass in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City. Steele was joined by Florida Governor Jeb Bush and by Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson. Steele has appeared several times on HBO's political show Real Time with Bill Maher, hosted by comedian Bill Maher. He appeared on Comedy Central's talk show The Colbert Report on January 23, 2007. Steele also hosted a PBS Republican Primary debate in Baltimore, Maryland on September 27, 2007.

2006 campaign for U.S. Senate

Steele's campaign was marked by controversy through election day itself. When Paul Sarbanes, Maryland’s longest serving United States Senator, announced in March 2005 that he would not be a candidate for re-election in 2006, top state and national Republican officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, began pressing Steele to become their party's nominee for the seat. In April 2005 the Baltimore Sun announced the results of a poll it conducted, stating that Steele would run statistically neck and neck against either former NAACP head Kweisi Mfume, or Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin of Baltimore County. With financial and other support from Karl Rove and Cheney, on October 25, 2005, Steele formally announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate. Polling in February 2006 showed the Lieutenant Governor lost significant ground against Cardin, although he remained statistically even with Mfume. Cardin won the primary election on September 12, 2006. In early 2006, Steele's campaign had some high-level resignations. Campaign manager, Graham Shafer left in January, and communications director and spokesman Leonardo Alcivar left in February. Steele lost the general election to Cardin on November 7, 2006, getting 44% of the vote to Cardin's 55%. The Washington Post reported that on election day the Steele campaign arranged for buses of low income people from Philadelphia to distribute fliers at polls. The flyers contained incorrect information, including a statement that Michael Steele was endorsed by prominent state Democrats and African American leaders who had not, in fact, endorsed him. The homeless people were falsely identified as volunteers although they were paid, and the campaign funds used for this purpose of hiring the homeless were not timely or properly reported or attributed to the campaign.

After the Senate race

Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post's The Fix blog reported one day after Steele conceded defeat in his Senate election that he was considering a run to succeed Ken Mehlman as the next chairman of the Republican National Committee. Instead Senator Mel Martinez of Florida was appointed as Mehlman's replacement. "I have not had any conversations directly with the White House yet on this," Steele said on C-Span's Washington Journal about the job. In February 2007, Steele did become chairman of GOPAC, a political action committee that helps fund state and local Republican campaigns around the country. In April 2007, he joined the international law firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae LLP, which is now part of Dewey & LeBoeuf. Steele is a partner in the firm's Washington, D.C. office. On May 17, 2007 Steele served as Co-Master of Ceremonies for the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the Washington Times newspaper. Former President George H. W. Bush was the keynote speaker. Steele, in his opening comments, said that he had subscribed to the Times throughout its 25 years of publication. At the Media Research Center's 2007 Honors Awards Gala, Steele concluded a speech with the following: "I get a question all the time, 'Are you going to run again for office?' And I've thought about that, and I've come to realize that there's still some Democrats out there that I haven't ticked off yet. So, yeah, we're gonna do it again. We're gonna do it again, and all I have to say is, they haven't seen anything yet." Steele is considered a possible candidate for Governor of Maryland in the future, and has said he's "intrigued by the idea". He may also run for the U.S. Senate in 2010.

Election as RNC Chairman

On November 11, 2008, Jeff Burton launched a political draft website to encourage Steele to run for Republican National Committee Chairman. The website allowed visitors to sign a draft petition, and received over 6,000 signatures. On November 24, 2008 Steele launched a campaign website, and confirmed his intention to run on Hannity and Colmes. In January 2009, the new chairman was decided by 168 committee members. Steele was seen as an early front runner. Steele rejected the idea that the color of his skin had anything to do with his chances at becoming RNC chair, saying, "I am a Republican who happens to be African American." Six men ran for the 2009 RNC Chairmanship: Steele, Ken Blackwell, Mike Duncan, Saul Anuzis, Katon Dawson (hampered by his membership in an all-white country club through summer of 2008), and Chip Saltsman, who dropped out one day before the voting due to continuing controversy over his references to Barack Obama as a "magic Negro" and to a "Star Spanglish Banner" in his campaign materials. As a result of Saltsman's withdrawal, there were only five candidates during the hotly-contested balloting January 30, 2009. After the third round of balloting that day, Steele held a small lead over incumbent Mike Duncan of Kentucky, with 51 votes to Duncan's 44. Shortly after the announcement of the standings, Duncan dropped out of contention without endorsing a candidate. Ken Blackwell, the only other African- American candidate, dropped out after the fourth ballot and endorsed Steele, though Blackwell had been the most conservative of the candidates and Steele had been accused of not being "sufficiently conservative." Steele picked up Blackwell's votes. After the fifth round, Steele held a ten vote lead over Katon Dawson, with 79 votes, and Saul Anuzis dropped out. After the sixth vote, he won the chairmanship of the RNC over Dawson by a vote of 91 to 77.

Political positions