Washington - Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele survived a five-hour ballot marathon to win election yesterday as the first African-American chairman of the Republican Party.
Steele was regarded as an outsider and an underdog in the five-way leadership contest. The other top contenders were all sitting members of the Republican National Committee, which had not reached outside its membership for a chairman in a contested election in more than 30 years.
"This is a remarkable moment," Steele told a post-election news conference. "Some say it's historic, but it's just one more step, one more bold step, that the party of Lincoln has taken since its founding."
He was asked about his comment, during his unsuccessful 2006 Senate run in Maryland, that campaigning as a Republican that year was like wearing "a scarlet letter," a remark that stirred anger in party circles.
"This is a new moment for our party," responded Steele. "We can take that scarlet badge off and wear a very proud 'R' on our chest."
The 50-year-old lawyer assumes the chairmanship of a national party that received just 4 percent of the African-American vote in the last election and is at its lowest ebb in recent decades. The RNC is equally lacking in diversity, with just three black members out of 168.
Race was not an overt factor in yesterday's contest, and there was another African-American candidate, Ohio conservative Ken Blackwell, who finished in last place. Blackwell withdrew before the fourth ballot and endorsed Steele, though it wasn't possible to determine what difference, if any, that made in the outcome.
Steele's supporters at the meeting said that his was the best face for the Republican Party to put forward, now that the first African-American president, Democrat Barack Obama, is in the White House.
One state party chairman said Steele did benefit, at the end, from a desire by some committee members not to award the top job to Katon Dawson, the South Carolina Republican chairman, whose former membership in an all-white country club was prominently featured in news coverage and threatened to reinforce the party's already negative image in the eyes of many Americans.
The sixth and final ballot came down to a choice between Dawson and Steele, who prevailed by a 91-77 margin.
"It is time for something completely different, and we're going to bring it to them," Steele said to applause from RNC members in a downtown Washington hotel ballroom.
