RGA

GOP Govs To Launch TV Ad In Solidarity With Scott Walker

Jillian Rayfield | March 1, 2011, 11:40AM

The Republican Governors Association is launching a radio and TV ad campaign in support of Gov. Scott Walker, who is currently locked in a protracted standoff with public unions and their supporters in Wisconsin.

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Michael Steele

Republican Governors Trash Michael Steele

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 18, 2010, 12:04PM

RNC Chairman Michael Steele

The backlash against RNC Chair Michael Steele has gone public. Gathering in California this week, the members of the Republican Governors Association shot some arrows back at RNC headquarters in Washington, openly calling for Steele's replacement.

Politico's Jonathan Martin reports that current RGA chair and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour -- whom many Republicans saw as the defacto leader of the GOP instead of Steele in the past election -- was direct in his call for a change at the RNC.

"Asked in an interview...whether there should be a new chairman of the party," Barbour "flatly said 'Yes.'"

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Gay Rights

Prez Hopeful Barbour Says Social Issues Won't Win Votes This Year

Christina Bellantoni | September 8, 2010, 1:07PM

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS)

A Republican focus on social issues won't win any votes this fall, Republican Gov. Haley Barbour and 2012 presidential contender said today.

A reporter attending the Christian Science Monitor breakfast this morning asked Barbour his thoughts on former RNC Chairman Ken Melhman recently coming out as gay despite the party benefiting from state measures banning same-sex marriage. The reporter also noted Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels recently suggesting a "truce" on social issues.

"I'd put my bona fides up against anybody as social conservative," Barbour said, but social issues such as gay rights, "ain't going to change anybody's vote this year."

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CO-GOV

RGA Chairman Signals Republicans Giving Up On Maes In Colorado

Christina Bellantoni | September 8, 2010, 11:16AM

Dan Maes, Republican candidate for governor in Colorado, and Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS)

Gov. Haley Barbour, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, had no kind words for his party's nominee for governor in Colorado Dan Maes. TPM has been chronicling Maes' problems over the last few weeks following his false claims he was a spy. Among his setbacks are the continued third-party candidacy of former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R) and Senate nominee Ken Buck (R) rescinding his endorsement.

Will the RGA stand by Maes with financial support?

"We have put some money in Colorado," Barbour told reporters during a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

He added firmly, "We have put some money in Colorado. Past tense."

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FL-GOV

RGA Steps In To Defend McCollum In FL-GOV Primary's Final Days

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 18, 2010, 10:36AM

FL Republican Gov. candidates Bill McCollum and Rick Scott.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has a new ally in the nasty Republican gubernatorial primary -- Republican Governors Association chair Haley Barbour. According to Politico, Barbour asked McCollum's opponent, former hospital executive Rick Scott, to pull down an ad linking McCollum to disgraced former Florida GOP chair Jim Greer.

Barbour says the video, which claims McCollum helped cover up Greer's alleged financial misdeeds at the state GOP, is false. Scott's campaign tells Politico it's not interested in Barbour's advice on how to run against McCollum.

"It should be no surprise that Bill McCollum once again turns to his D.C. establishment friends to bail out his campaign. With all due respect to Chairman Barbour, Bill McCollum's statements and actions in the Jim Greer scandal speak for themselves and have been widely documented by the media," Scott spokesperson Jen Baker told Politico's David Catanese.

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VA-GOV

RGA Targets Deeds Over Public Option In New Ads

Evan McMorris-Santoro | October 22, 2009, 12:20PM

VA-Gov. Candidates Bob McDonnell (R) and Creigh Deeds (D)

Saw this coming -- the RGA has turned yet another Creigh Deeds awkward moment from a post-debate gaggle into yet another negative TV ad slamming the Democratic nominee in the Virginia gubernatorial contest.

Last month, Deeds stumbled over reporters' questions about taxes immediately following widely reported debate in Fairfax County, the heart of the D.C. suburbs. The RGA turned the moment into at least three ads, hammering Deeds for what the party said was his attempt to "have it both ways" on raising taxes.

After a televised debate Monday night, the RGA says in it's new ad, Deeds stepped in it again over his support (or lack thereof) for a public option in the health care reform debate.

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