Steele Under Increasing Pressure to Step Aside in 2011
Sources tell Fox News that one of Steele’s closest confidantes, Wisconsin Republican party chairman and RNC legal counsel Reince Priebus, is among those talking to Steele about the possibility of not running for re-election. Preibus has not returned calls and e-mails from Fox News.
Other RNC members are not being so subtle about the situation. Haley Barbour’s nephew, Henry Barbour says Steele “has to go.” The RNC committeeman from Mississippi is reaching out to multiple members, including Priebus, urging them to challenge Steele.
“I do think it’s time that we make a change,” said Henry Barbour, pointing to poor fundraising at the RNC under Steele along with some infamous ill-chosen comments from the chairman, “We won elections this year because of a toxic environment for Democrats, not because of Chairman Steele,” Barbour said.
The fact that Henry Barbour is publically coming out against Steele is yet another clear signal to many that, Haley Barbour, the Governor of Mississippi, Chairman of the Republican Governor’s Association and one of the most powerful Republicans in the land, is among a growing group of prominent Republicans against the idea of Steele running the RNC during the 2012 presidential election. On election night Haley Barbour memorably called out Steele and the RNC on fundraising, saying their lackluster effort left him and the RGA scrambling.
Fox News
11/11/10
Magnolia Tribune
