Ron Kirk for DNC Chair?

[madape]

I thought it was interesting that our favorite former mayor is getting some consideration to be the the head of the dying political party.

Race Under Way for Parties' Top Slots

Tue Nov 9, 6:11 PM ET Politics - AP


By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Jockeying for the top job at the Democratic Party is under way after Election Day losses, with former presidential hopeful Howard Dean (news - web sites) indicating an interest in the post while other names are circulating. Republicans may reward a GOP operative who helped engineer President Bush (news - web sites)'s re-election.

With the presidential election over, both parties are expected to pick new national committee chiefs early next year, with the Democrats replacing Terry McAuliffe and the Republicans finding a successor to Ed Gillespie. For the GOP, the choice is easy: whomever President Bush recommends. Republican activists said a likely candidate is Ken Mehlman, the former White House political director who served as campaign manager for the Bush-Cheney team.


Democrats face a much tougher challenge. The next leader of the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) will be responsible for rebuilding a party battered by two straight presidential election losses, finding a way to stanch the flow of voters away from its ranks and picking up seats in congressional elections in 2006. Democrats agree the party needs an aggressive activist to replace McAuliffe, whose term is ending. But finding the party's next leader could trigger another internal battle about the future direction of the party, which has now lost seven of the last 10 presidential elections and is the minority party in both the House and the Senate.


"The most important thing we can do is get our message right," said Al From, head of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) met with Democratic leaders in Congress on Tuesday — a week after his loss to Bush — and told them, "We need to be unified and we have a very clear agenda. I'm going to be fighting for that agenda with all my energy and all the passion that I brought to the campaign." Kerry met with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Whip Harry Reid, D-Nev.


Dean, the former Vermont governor who waged an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination, told associates earlier this week that he is considering running for the job. Although his own campaign fizzled, Dean's Internet-fueled campaign and his willingness to take on the president on the Iraq (news - web sites) war tapped into a deep anger among many voters. His activism would help energize the party's liberal base, but some Democrats question whether he is the right person to broaden the party's appeal to mainstream voters.


Also mentioned for the DNC post are Govs. Tom Vilsack of Iowa and Mark Warner of Virginia, and former Gov. Roy Barnes of Georgia. Harold Ickes, a New York lawyer who was a White House aide in the Clinton administration and has close ties to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (news - web sites), D-N.Y., has a large following, especially in the Clinton wing of the party. Ickes is a passionate advocate and successful fund-raiser, but his Clinton ties might work against him among Democrats backing other candidates.


Other names being circulated: Inez Tenenbaum, South Carolina's education superintendent and unsuccessful Senate candidate; and Simon Rosenberg, founder and president of the centrist New Democrat Network. Of course, the party's real boss will be chosen in 2008 when a nominee is selected. But the next party leader will be responsible for trying to build support for Democratic candidates in the midterm elections.


Some Democratic activists would like a black party chief, such as Donna Brazile, who ran Al Gore (news - web sites)'s campaign in 2000; former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer and former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb.


It's a job that nobody at this point wants to say they are seeking. Dean said he still hadn't made up his mind and Brazile said Tuesday, "I haven't tossed my hat in the ring for that job. It should be somebody from outside Washington. I'm not ready to take on that task, but I want to help whoever will."


Among Hispanics, Antonio Villaraigosa, former speaker of the California Assembly and now a Los Angeles city councilman, is getting some attention. Several party activists suggested Sen. John Edwards (news - web sites) of North Carolina, the Democratic vice presidential nominee who decided not to seek another term in the Senate. Edwards seems like an ideal choice: telegenic, son of the South and in need of a platform if he's to launch a bid for the 2008 presidential nomination. However, Edwards' representatives discouraged the notion.

Still to be decided is whether there should be a single party chief to run the day-to-day operation and be the party's public face, as McAuliffe has done, or whether the job should be split between a chairman and chief operating officer, a model also used in the past. The tenure of the post also remains to be decided — two years or four, with a possible promise not to seek the presidency.

Although the job won't be filled until early February, campaigning is expected to begin in earnest when several preliminary meetings are held in December. Among Republicans, Gillespie is widely admired and has Bush's support, but he has indicated he does not intend to serve another term.

Tom Rath, New Hampshire National Republican committeeman, said, "there is no way we will not take who the White House suggests." Charles Black, a longtime GOP consultant, said the new party chief "needs to focus on the races for '06," noting that historically the party holding the White House loses seats in midterm elections.