May 09, 2005|By David Nitkin | David Nitkin,SUN STAFF
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.
FOR THE RECORD - An article Monday incorrectly described an event attended by Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele during the Republican National Convention in New York last year. Steele was the honoree at a nightclub party hosted by Washington attorney Sandy A. Roberts; the event was not a fund-raiser.
The Sun regrets the error.
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 Naval Academy 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.
