Steele begins naming his team

In an attempt to deflect attention from growing problems with conservatives in his party, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele has begun naming top aides two weeks ahead of schedule.

Mr. Steele on Thursday named Ken McKay his chief of staff, the start of a plan to spread over several days the revelation of his choices: technology chief on Friday, communications director on Monday, finance head on Tuesday and other key positions later.

To the consternation of many Steele supporters and critics alike, the vital department-head positions have gone unfilled since the charismatic former Maryland lieutenant governor won election on Jan. 30 as chairman of the 168-member RNC. He defeated four rivals in a five-way election that was not decided until the sixth round of balloting.

Trevor Francis, 36, who runs the Richmond office of Burson-Marsteller and was press secretary at the U.S. Commerce Department, will be announced Monday as the RNC communications director, Republican insiders told The Washington Times.

Mr. McKay, who was chief of staff to Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri from 2003 to 2006 and is said to be a model of efficiency, will be in charge of making the trains run on time at the headquarters at 310 First St. SE, which insiders have said has been “rudderless” since Mr. Steele, 51, took over as chairman.

Mr. McKay, 42, who also managed Mr. Carcieri’s Rhode Island gubernatorial campaign and two other successful Republican campaigns, is the pick of Curt Anderson, a longtime Republican operative who came up through the RNC and is Mr. Steele’s top consultant.

Conservatives did not regard Mr. Carcieri as one of their own and he did not run as one in his Rhode Island gubernatorial campaign, but running a successful campaign in the tiny Democratic-leaning state is regarded in the consultant community as an achievement.

Republican sources did not name Mr. Steele’s choices for technology chief or finance director beyond saying that the former is a Microsoft whiz who left the software giant to form his own company.

Republican officials hope that news of the appointments will elbow aside the coverage Mr. Steele has been generating, making himself the news rather than the failing economy and the missteps by congressional Democrats and President Obama. Next week also will feature public release of final reports by three transition committee teams on restructuring and reorganizing the RNC and its various departments.

The most-recent round of unwanted publicity came from a Gentlemen’s Quarterly magazine interview posted Wednesday night and widely picked up in which Mr. Steele enunciated a confusing position that said both that abortion was “an individual choice” and that the Supreme Court decision making it an individual choice was “wrongly decided.”

Mr. Steele issued a statement Thursday trying to tamp down a chorus of criticism from pro-lifers and social conservatives who have never trusted his bona fides on abortion.

“I am pro-life, always have been, always will be,” he said. “I tried to present why I am pro-life while recognizing that my mother had a ‘choice’ before deciding to put me up for adoption.” He reiterated his statement that the 1973 Roe v. Wade case was “wrongly decided” and should be overturned.

Mr. Steele long has been considered suspect by social conservatives because of his association with Republicans such as pro-choice former Environmental Protection Agency Director Christine Todd Whitman. Mr. Steele also favors same-sex unions short of marriage, though this distinction matters little to the social conservative base. The Republican National Platform long has called for a constitutional ban on abortion and more recently on same-sex marriage.

Mr. Steele, the first black national chairman in GOP history, won election in large part because he was thought to be the most able spokesman for his party - a man comfortable in front of a TV camera.

Republicans hope Mr. Francis as communications director will help the chairman stick to an agreed-upon message and avoid the gaffes that have plagued his first few weeks in office. The choices of Mr. McKay and the other management heads came after the review of more than 100 resumes from applicants from around the country and dozens of interviews, Mr. Steele told The Washington Times.

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