RNC Chair Steele Refuses to Cancel Speech at Sharpton Event
"Angela Sailor, the Republican National Committee’s Director of Coalitions, called me today to inform me that Michael Steele will speak as scheduled at the annual conference of Al Sharpton’s group, the National Action Network (NAN). On April 4, NLPC asked Steele to withdraw from the event, which takes place tomorrow through Friday in New York City. When I went through each of our objections, Ms. Sailor gave me some permutation of the following: 'Chairman Steele is going to New York to speak to 500-1,000 people in a ballroom to ask them to support Republican candidates.' When I asked if Steele might have better luck elsewhere, she claimed that many of the attendees are 'independent,' who she characterized as 'swing voters'. When I queried whether most attendees, who are paying for travel and New York hotel rooms, were more likely activists committed to Sharpton’s message, Sailor stuck to the script. She responded: 'If we take time to talk to folks in a ballroom, they will support our candidates if we go and ask them.'"
On Feb. 26, 2009, the 41-year-old Sailor was named director of the RNC’s coalitions department, an office charged with evaluating “every outside constituent organization in the country at the local, state and national levels.” The department is integral to fulfilling Steele’s goal to reach out to minority voting groups on a full-time basis, not just during election season. It also strives to connect to young voters through social media, and trains grassroots activists about using new media to advance the GOP's agenda.
To show he meant business, Steele made the coalitions group an independent departmentwithin the RNC, complete with its own budget and a handsome salary for Sailor.
Is this starting to sound like a Chairman playing loose and goosey with RNC money? It should, because he is.
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