It looks like our own California Republican National Committeeman Tim Morgan is going to be elected Treasurer of the Republican National Committee!
The primary governing body of the national Republican Party is the Republican National Committee. This body is made up of around 170 or so people — three from each state and also representation from some United States territories. Each state has on the RNC its Chairman, as well as a Committeeman and a Committeewoman. Each individual state decides how it elects these important offices. In California, since a change in the Party Rules that was in effect in 1996, the State Republican Party Central Committee has elected our Committeeman and Committeewoman, Tim Morgan and Barbara Alby, respectively. Of course the same CRP delegates elect our Chairman, currently Duf Sundheim and come February, Ron Nehring (Ron is unopposed in his ascendancy into the Chairmanship – he is currently Vice Chairman of the State GOP).
As you can tell, the RNC is a pretty elite group. It’s numbers are small, but yet the officers they select run a political entity that is raising and spending a tremendous amount of money.
The politics of the RNC is tied to whether there is a Republican President in the White House. The tradition of the RNC has been to defer to the President on who should be leading the National committee when there is a Republican incumbent. For better or worse, the process has been that a President lets it be known who he or she wants, and that is pretty much game, set and match for who among the RNC members is elevated to the senior-most positions. When there is no President of the Party of Lincoln, then there is a lot more politicking within the committee as the selection for Chairman becomes a real contest. The last Chairman elected under such circumstances was Jim Nicholson of Colorado. He won a very divided election, and saw the RNC through the election of President Bush in 2000. Since then, the President has tapped the Chairmen.
Shortly after the 2006 election, current RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman announced that he would be stepping aside, as is the traditional after your party takes a drubbing at the polls. The President has asked the RNC to elect longtime Committeeman Mike Duncan of Kentucky to be it’s Chairman, and for him to ‘share’ governance with a titular General Chairman, United States Senator Mel Martinez of Florida. This is not uncommon to have a non-RNC member as the public face of the RNC.
**There is more – click the link**