"Committee members want to see our party move forward and be part of a branding process, as opposed to just simply supporting and putting a rubber stamp on the policies of a sitting president," said Robin Smith, chairwoman of the Tennessee state GOP and a supporter of turning the party to the right.
Conservative champion Rush Limbaugh, who often provides the rallying cry to the party's most ardent supporters via his radio program, last week laid out a similar warning, suggesting that a McCain win would do little to deter conservatives from pushing for major changes.
"One step at a time," Limbaugh told his listeners. "We're going to drag McCain across the finish line -- then we start rebuilding the conservative movement. It's going to happen whether he wins or loses, but especially if he wins too."
Stripping a president of the ability to name the party's top leader would mark a dramatic break from tradition. Bush, for example, has handpicked the party chairman since his election in 2000.
One moderate contender for party chairman, Jim Greer, is pushing a theme of ethnic outreach. Greer is chief of the state party in Florida and is a close ally of the state's governor, Charlie Crist, who some in the party say is laying the groundwork to spread his brand of centrist Republicanism to the national stage.
The Florida GOP recently mailed a brochure to members of the party's national committee nationwide featuring photos of Greer and Crist courting Latinos. One page focused on a black Republican candidate for the state Legislature.
Greer and Crist have also moved to distance the Florida party from some of the more aggressive tactics of the McCain campaign. In recent weeks, the state party declined to pay for direct-mail pieces linking Obama to 1960s domestic terrorist-turned education professor William Ayers, a connection that the McCain campaign has tried to highlight.
Two other potential candidates for chairman, both considered more conservative than Greer, plan meetings shortly after the presidential election.
One gathering, in Myrtle Beach, S.C., will be hosted by South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson. In an interview, Dawson said that "moderating our party is what caused us to lose power" in the 2006 elections. He said the party must speak more forcefully against excessive government spending and illegal immigration.
