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GOP makes push to get Steele into Senate race
Republicans nationwide see best shot in decades of gaining a seat in Md.

By David Nitkin
Sun Staff

May 9, 2005

North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole and her staff at the candidate-recruiting National Republican Senatorial Committee have met with Michael S. Steele three times, attempting to persuade him to enter the race for U.S. Senate.

Steele also has been contacted by Karl Rove, the master strategist credited with engineering President Bush's election wins.

"No stone has gone unturned," Dole said last week. "I am a huge Michael Steele fan."

National Republicans are waging an aggressive campaign to launch Maryland's lieutenant governor into the race to replace retiring Democratic incumbent Paul S. Sarbanes, as party leaders sense their best chance in decades of gaining a Senate seat in the traditionally Democratic state.

Their effort to persuade Steele to seek national office -- which appears on the cusp of success -- could trigger the costliest and most competitive series of election contests the state has ever seen, Republican strategists say. The national party would make sure Steele had the $15 million experts say is needed for a serious run.

Add to that the $20 million Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is expected to spend on his re-election effort, and an equivalent amount by Democratic candidates for governor and Senate, and state voters won't be able to turn on their television sets or open their mailboxes without hearing from candidates.

"Maryland is about to experience Republican politics as you've never seen," said Scott W. Reed, former campaign manager for Bob Dole and a past executive director of the Republican National Committee. "You are going to see an unprecedented amount of coordination and resources because Republicans recognize that Maryland could be the big story of the cycle."

The courtship of Steele

The courtship of Steele, intense and visible, started well before Sarbanes' announcement in March that he would not seek a sixth term.

Steele, 46, has been welcomed into the inner circle of national GOP politics since his speech at last year's Republican National Convention drew glowing comparisons to Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. He has visited the White House at least twice this year, for a February reading of Abraham Lincoln's letters and speeches, and last month's presentation of the Commander in Chief's Trophy to the football team.

Steele campaigned extensively for Bush last year, part of a minority outreach tour that included flamboyant boxing promoter Don King.

In March, the RNC named him to a national African-American Advisory Committee, which appears to be an assemblage of black Republicans being primed for higher office. The panel includes Bishop Keith Butler, a Michigan minister running for the U.S. Senate, and J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Ohio secretary of state who is a candidate for governor next year.

But when the Senate seat in Maryland opened, the effort to reach out to Steele intensified. The former Catholic seminarian was asked to be part of a three-person delegation representing the United States at the installation of Pope Benedict XVI.

"It's clear that the national Republicans have turned on the charm offensive because they recognize what a strong candidate Steele will be," Reed said.

"It's outreach from Elizabeth Dole and her campaign," he said. "The president. Karl Rove. The president's brother [Florida Gov. Jeb Bush]. Asking him to go to Rome. This is how you get good candidates to take on big races, because you feel you are part of a big family."

Steele -- who was out of town last week and could not be reached for comment -- has made clear he is considering a run. There are no major GOP leaders in Maryland who oppose his entry; all see him as the party's best chance.

Barring a veto by his wife, Andrea, who has been slow to embrace political life, a run seems a sure thing, political insiders say.

A few Republicans worry that Steele's entry in the Senate race would break up the successful Ehrlich/Steele team and could affect the governor's re-election chances. But the more prevalent view is that because the two would likely both be on the ballot in 2006, the damage would be minimal.

"It would still be a ticket," said Bill Brock, the former Tennessee senator and RNC chief who lives in Annapolis. "They would be partners, and almost equal partners. ... I don't see the downside."

GOP's chances

Although Steele has said he wants to run for governor in 2010, after a possible second term for Ehrlich, the prospect of an open Senate seat in a state where Republicans held little chance of making gains before Sarbanes' unexpected announcement seems too juicy to pass up.

Democrats outnumber Republicans in Maryland about 2-to-1, and Ehrlich was the first GOP candidate to win a governor's race since Spiro T. Agnew in 1966. So far, major Democrats in the Senate contest include Kweisi Mfume, the former congressman and chief of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, the 10-term congressman from Baltimore County. In a hypothetical match-up against either man, Steele is neck and neck, a poll for The Sun found last month.

"His running gives us a great opportunity to pick up an open seat," said Ed Gillespie, a former RNC chairman and friend of Steele's. "I don't remember ever being in a meeting talking about who should run against Sarbanes."

Republican strategists say Steele's freshly honed national profile means money will not be a problem for the costly Senate race. His recent travels -- he flew to California last month to appear on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher -- provide the kind of exposure needed to tap a national fund-raising network, political observers say.

"Campaign contributions reflect the geography of income, they don't reflect the geography of support," said James G. Gimpel, a government professor at the University of Maryland, College Park who has supported Republican candidates and causes. "With a lot of contributions flowing in from outside the state, it means Michael Steele needs to become known to those who might be contributing in New York, California, New Jersey and Illinois."

Sandy A. Roberts, a Washington attorney who held a fund-raiser for Steele at a New York City nightclub owned by rapper Jay-Z during the GOP convention, said he has spoken to Steele recently but has not received a commitment. "The story that you are reporting, that he is still thinking about it, is what he is telling me," Roberts said.

Still, Roberts said he has been placed on alert that his services might be needed soon. "There are some splinter groups, a 'Draft Michael' committee," he said.

Richard E. Hug, Ehrlich's campaign finance chairman and a major donor to President Bush, said he has had conversations with national Republican leaders about their desire for Steele to run.

"The Ehrlich team has a phenomenal fund-raising machine, as you well know," he said. "I'm sure a lot of those donors will be there for Michael, and the national Republican Party will be there big time for Michael."

'Timing is everything'

Steele would be seeking something rare. No lieutenant governor in modern times -- the office was re-established in 1970 after a century hiatus -- has risen to governor or federal office. The list of aspirants with dashed hopes includes Melvin A. Steinberg and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. was second-in-command during Gov. Harry R. Hughes' second term.

Like Townsend, Steele has never been elected to public office on his own. His first attempt, for comptroller in 1998, ended in a primary defeat and left him with a $25,000 debt that went unpaid for five years. He eventually paid the money, lent by his sister, Monica Turner Tyson, ex-wife of boxer Mike Tyson, in 2003, campaign finance records show.

Steele's political background includes stints as party chief in Prince George's County and at the state level. After years toiling for a party that teetered on the brink of irrelevancy in Maryland, he appears to enjoy the trappings of lieutenant governor and his celebrity status.

A solo statewide race would reveal to the public a side of Steele that might not be well known: He is conservative, far more so than Ehrlich, holding views on social issues consistent with his religious upbringing and his days in a Catholic seminary, where he briefly studied for the priesthood. Steele opposes the death penalty and abortion, even in cases where the health of the mother is at risk.

"Steele is untested, unproven and out of touch with mainstream Maryland," said Derek Walker, a spokesman for the Maryland Democratic Party. "The governor's promises to give Steele a meaningful role in the administration have amounted to commissions that have gone nowhere and taxpayer-funded photo opportunities."

Republicans disagree. They call Steele a charismatic and talented leader who represents the future of the party.

"In politics, as in life, timing is everything," Brock said. "This is his time."

Sun staff writer Andrew A. Green contributed to this article.

Copyright © 2005, The Baltimore Sun