The Anti-Michael Steele

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The Anti-Michael Steele
by Benjamin Sarlin


While his GOP counterpart descends into corruption and bondage scandals, DNC Chairman Tim Kaine is pleasing the president by keeping quiet and raising a fortune.

It’s no surprise that of the nation’s two major party chairmen, Michael Steele scores the lion’s share of press coverage. From his first days as head of the RNC, he’s racked up a continuous stream of scandals, gaffes, dust ups, and distractions, culminating this week with the revelation that the party paid for an outing at a bondage-themed lesbian strip club. But while Steele has flailed publicly, DNC Chairman Tim Kaine, the former governor of Virginia, has helmed a smooth and relatively successful operation.

In fairness to Steele, Kaine’s role is inherently different as head of the party in control of the White House and Congress. With President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid to speak for the party, there’s less pressure for Kaine to draw attention to himself and define the party’s brand—just the opposite, in fact. Kaine’s mandate is to focus on organization and be an ATM. Nonetheless, his success in keeping the party operations scandal-free and his own media appearances free of controversy is a notable achievement. In recent weeks he has featured prominently on cable news, especially during the health-care debate, with nary a slip up to speak of.

“You never hear him gaffe, you very rarely see him getting in any embarrassing situations at all—I just can’t think of one,” Democratic strategist Joe Trippi told The Daily Beast. “It doesn’t mean the DNC’s been pure all these years, but under Kaine’s leadership that’s just not something you're likely to run into.”

In terms of fundraising, the DNC has performed competently under Kaine, raising close to $93 million as of January and easily outpacing the numbers put up under Howard Dean, whose DNC took in $117 million over the entire 2005-2006 cycle. Michael Steele’s RNC, despite bringing in more money, has about $1 million less cash on hand due to its higher burn rate. (Kaine is limited in that the DNC under Obama does not accept money from PACs or lobbyists.) There’s still plenty of room for him to improve, however: As reported by Politico, a number of top Obama donors have not given the maximum $30,400 donation to the DNC. The money will be especially crucial given the Republican-friendly political environment heading into the midterms.

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