Steele seemingly man of anomalies

Black Republican raised by Democratic parents seen as having ability to attract African-American vote in Prince
George's County

The Associated Press

July 1, 2002

LANHAM -- Michael Steele's personal history is filled with seeming contradictions and unexpected twists.

Raised by Democratic parents in Washington, Steele, 43, went on to join the Republican party as a young adult. After two years of study at an Augustinian Order seminary in the 1980s,
he abandoned a career as a priest to go to law school.

But perhaps the biggest anomaly is that Steele is a black Republican from overwhelmingly Democratic and majority black Prince George's County.

That may be his biggest asset.

Republicans and Democrats alike say it was a shrewd move by Robert Ehrlich to pick Steele as his running mate for governor because it gives the party an inroad with a traditional
Democratic bloc -- black voters.

"Michael's been breaking barriers ever since he stepped into the political arena," said Audrey Scott, the lone Republican on the Prince George's County Council.

Steele was elected head of the state Republican party two years ago, becoming the only black GOP party chairman in the nation.

He grew up in the District of Columbia, attending Catholic schools and eventually Johns Hopkins University. He studied for the priesthood at Villanova University, but left to attend
Georgetown University law school, earning a degree in 1991. He practiced law for six years and now runs a business and legal consulting firm.

Affable and articulate, Steele has close personal ties that blur party lines. It's a trait he's had since his childhood, according to his stepfather John Turner, 70.

"He was always jolly and talkative. He talked to anybody and everybody," Turner said.

A one-time limousine driver in Washington, Turner would occasionally be called on to ferry Robert F. Kennedy around town. Turner's son now faces off against the daughter of the
former senator and attorney general, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, in the race for the State House.

Steele credits two people with turning him toward the Republican party -- his mother, a lifelong Democrat, and President Ronald Reagan.

He heard a strong message of self-reliance when Reagan ran for president in 1976. It's a trait that Maebell Turner embodied when she chose not to go on welfare after her first husband,
Steele's father, died.

"She said, 'I don't want the government to raise my child.' That stuck with me and was a powerful message for me," Steele said.

Steele now lives in Largo with his two sons and wife, a one-time executive at Riggs Bank, and attends St. Mary's church in Landover Hills. His sister, Monica Tyson, was married to boxer
Mike Tyson but filed for divorce earlier this year.

Steele was active in party politics for several years, serving as chairman of the Republican Central Committee for Prince George's County from 1994 to 2000 and was a delegate to the GOP
presidential convention in 2000. He also ran for comptroller in 1998, losing in the Republican primary.

When he ran for state party chairman in 2000, Steele downplayed race in his platform. But he has tried to reach out to black voters since then, saying there is room for them in a party that
is traditionally majority white, according to current Prince George's GOP chairman Richard Landon.

That includes Steele's advocacy for single-member districts for the General Assembly during the recent redistricting process.

The plan allows delegates to run in their own district instead of the current system, where three House lawmakers are elected at large in one district. In smaller individual districts, the
theory holds, minority candidates have a better chance of winning seats because minority votes would not be diluted in a larger electorate.

"He's got a lot of bright ideas for the party," Landon said. "I think he will add a lot to the ticket."

Ehrlich has made clear he plans to target voters in the Washington region, including blacks who Republicans say have been ignored by the Democrats despite their loyalty to the party.

Prince George's County is overwhelmingly Democratic, according to voter registration figures that show 295,700 Democrats and 56,500 Republicans as of June 28th. It's also largely black,
with roughly 500,000 black residents out of a total population of 800,000, according to the 2000 census.

Having Steele as a running mate will help Ehrlich get his message out in the county, said Del. Rushern Baker III, a black Democrat who heads the county's General Assembly delegation
and is close friends with Steele.

"Michael is going to bring a large credibility to the ticket in terms of people from Prince George's County," Baker said.

But Steele will have to make sure that the Ehrlich campaign and state Republicans keep their message of inclusiveness, said Virginia Kellogg, head of the Prince George's Black
Republicans. She says she's been frustrated in the past that the state GOP hasn't reached out to black Republicans.

"The Republican party has got to make sure that we black Republicans feel included. With Michael Steele on the ticket we're looking for that inclusiveness," she said.

Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press