Republican National Committee

Republican officials voted Friday to elect their first black national party chairman, a response in part to election defeats that have left the party's base more white and Southern at a time when the country is growing more diverse. The election of Michael Steele puts in the limelight a charismatic African American who has championed outreach to minorities as key to the party's future.

WASHINGTON - Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney pulled in more than $40.1 million for his election effort last month, his campaign said Thursday, a near match of President Obama's April fundraising haul. It was the first month Romney could reap the benefits of a joint fundraising venture with the Republican National Committee and several state parties. By teaming fundraising efforts with the party committees, Romney could solicit contributions up to $75,000 per person - a steep jump from the $2,500 donation limit the campaign faced during the Republican primary.

Michael S. Steele completed his first 100 days as Republican national chairman this weekend, but the party let the milestone pass without notice. Steele made history in January as the first African American to head the Republican National Committee. It's been largely downhill since, with Republicans in disarray and Steele under siege over a variety of problems, many self-inflicted.

Many prominent Republican donors are still sitting on the sidelines of the 2012 race, as the Los Angeles Times reported today , but it appears they are finding other outlets for their contributions. One beneficiary of the donor ambivalence has been the Republican National Committee, which pulled in more than $7 million in March, bringing the total raised in the first three months under  its new chairman, Reince Priebus, to $15.7 million. That means the RNC raised more money in the first quarter of 2011 than the first quarters of 2009 and 2010 combined, during the tenure of chairman Michael Steele.

President Bush on Monday tapped Ken Mehlman, a key architect of his reelection campaign, to serve as chairman of the Republican National Committee. The committee must approve the choice at its winter meeting in January, but it is expected to ratify Mehlman without much dissent. "When there is an incumbent president, he can pretty much have whoever he wants as the chairman," said Gary Bauer, a longtime conservative activist.

A night out at a risque West Hollywood nightclub was an "after-hours nonofficial get-together" that followed a meeting of young Republican donors and should not have been paid for with party money, a top Republican National Committee official said in a memo released Tuesday. RNC Chief of Staff Ken McKay said no senior party officials attended the outing at Voyeur, which features performers in bondage and sadomasochistic scenes. Nor did party officials know of the purpose of the reimbursement to the donor who paid the nearly $2,000 tab, the memo said.

WASHINGTON - Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney pulled in more than $40.1 million for his election effort last month, his campaign said Thursday, a near match of President Obama's April fundraising haul. It was the first month Romney could reap the benefits of a joint fundraising venture with the Republican National Committee and several state parties. By teaming fundraising efforts with the party committees, Romney could solicit contributions up to $75,000 per person - a steep jump from the $2,500 donation limit the campaign faced during the Republican primary.

Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke said Friday that he would stop using the name "Conservative Republican National Committee" in his fund-raising efforts to avoid threatened legal action by the Republican National Committee. Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour sent Duke a letter Tuesday threatening to sue him for violating consumer-protection laws and to prohibit him from using the name. Barbour said the name was misleading.

Though states will continue to hold primaries into June, a Republican candidate could secure his party's nomination on March 14. * Source: Republican National Committee; researched by MASSIE RITSCH / Los Angeles Times

Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson has resigned. Nicholson, 69, a former Republican National Committee chairman, was picked by President Bush to head the VA Department in 2005. Nicholson said his resignation would take effect no later than Oct. 1.

WASHINGTON -- Nick Ayers, one of the most sought-after operatives in the Republican Party, has signed on to run former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's presidential exploratory committee and likely presidential campaign, a sign the slow-moving GOP race is picking up steam. Pawlenty got to know Ayers through the Republican Governors Assn., where the latter served as executive director for four years, overseeing a team that raised a record $117 million in the last election cycle. "He is without question one of the best political talents in America," Pawlenty said in a statement.

As he ponders a run for president, Haley Barbour would not seem a natural fit for the anti-establishment political mood now brewing: The governor of Mississippi is a longtime inside-the-Beltway operator who lobbied for the tobacco industry and other powerful interests. But Barbour wields a key asset that makes him a potential heavyweight in a crowded GOP field: fundraising prowess born of decades as a Republican power player. Presiding over his party's national committee and then its governors association, Barbour raked in donations with a ferocity that delighted Republicans, boggled Democrats and alarmed campaign finance watchdogs.

WASHINGTON ? Wisconsin Republican Party chairman Reince Priebus was elected chair of the Republican National Committee on Friday, defeating four other candidates ? including incumbent Michael Steele ? in the seventh round of voting. Priebus never trailed in the voting, slowly building on his tally until he surpassed a majority of the 168 voting members. State party chair since 2007, Priebus helped Wisconsin Republicans win back the governor's office after eight years, unseat three-term Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold, and pick up two congressional seats in 2010, success the party hopes he can replicate on a national scale.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele launched a fight to keep his job Monday, stunning many in the party who had expected him to step aside. His decision means Republicans will be debating the record of its first African American chairman next month just as the new GOP-controlled House is being sworn in. Steele and Republican congressional leaders have been at odds in the past and a bruising internecine fight could become an unwelcome distraction. Near the close of a sometimes-rambling 33-minute speech, delivered to the Republican National Committee via conference call Monday night, Steele asked members to give him a second term "because I really believe in my heart that our work is not done.

As the GOP focuses on unseating President Obama in 2012, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele's chances of keeping his job are slipping away, according to present and former party officials. The chairman's main task in the coming year is to provide a strong financial footing for the campaign. But Steele's difficulties with raising and spending money are among the reasons some committee members want new leadership when his term expires next month. "We're a top-down party.

Former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota said he won't pursue the Republican National Committee chairmanship as long as Michael Steele wants to keep the job. Coleman told the St. Paul Pioneer Press on Friday that part of his decision is based on respect for Steele, despite criticism directed against the current chairman from within the party. Coleman said he doesn't think Steele has gotten enough credit for the work he's done bringing the "tea party" movement and the GOP together.

B. Jay Cooper, White House deputy press secretary, will become the Republican National Committee's communications director Aug. 1, Administration officials confirmed Thursday. He will replace Mark Goodin, who resigned under fire last month after circulating a memo attacking House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.).

Is Sarah Palin the secret weapon in Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele's reelection campaign? Some members of the RNC think so. They expect her to back the former Maryland lieutenant governor's bid for a second term as party chairman. The two appeared together during Steele's recent coast-to-coast "Fire Pelosi" bus tour. And Steele came to Palin's defense on national television this week, telling critics of the former Alaska governor to "shut up. " Palin's endorsement would be a valuable asset in the coming chairmanship fight and could help counter those who say Steele is the wrong person to head the party going into the 2012 presidential cycle.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele on Sunday predicted an "unprecedented wave" of GOP victories while Democrats saw signs of voters awakening as both sides made arguments in the final week before the midterm election. Democrats said voters were souring on the big money being funneled to outside groups supporting Republican candidates, including one organization co-founded by Karl Rove, a former advisor to President George W. Bush. Rove defended the spending Sunday as part of a campaign finance system in need of reform.