A Few Minutes with Katon Dawson, RNC Chair Candidate

Friday, December 19, 2008

Only two states in the country had more people vote for John McCain for president in 2008 than voted for George W. Bush in 2004: Louisiana and South Carolina.*

A certain amount of credit for that increased Republican turnout in the Palmetto State has to go to Katon Dawson, chairman of the state party and a candidate for the Republican National Committee chair. Because it was deemed a safe Republican state, South Carolina received little attention from the national party and the McCain campaign, and there were no other dramatic statewide races or referenda.

“An election is usually settled on three questions: ‘Do I know ya? Do I like ya? Do I trust ya? And sometimes there’s a fourth question, what am I gonna do for ya?’” Dawson said in a recent interview. He attributes the GOP’s recent troubles to the party trying to compete with Democrats on the fourth question by emulating them in terms of spending, to disastrous results.

South Carolina is, in the national imagination, deep Dixie and fertile ground for Republicans. But Dawson notes that beating Democrats in this state isn’t as easy it may look from outside: The state had a Democratic governor as recently as 2002, and Democratic senator Ernest “Fritz” Hollings held his seat with an iron grip for several terms. Republicans only retook control of the state senate in 2000, and they hold an 8-seat margin; in the state assembly, the GOP has expanded its majority from a 12-seat margin in 1998 to a 22-seat margin today. South Carolina Democrats are rarely foolish enough to run as liberals, and running against a conservative opponent represents unique challenges. Dawson notes that recently five Democratic sheriffs switched parties to the GOP, because they knew the new partisan label could ensure their reelection.

Dawson jokes that back in 2002, when he began running the state party, every time he entered a bar, patrons would move three barstools down, because they knew he would be hitting them up for donations. During his management, the state party has raised $18 million, and expanded its donor base to 18,000 individuals.

Dawson’s bid for the RNC chair hit early controversy over his membership in a Columbia country club that had whites-only language in its deed and that has no African-American members (although African-Americans play at the club as guests). Earlier this year, Dawson sought to get the language removed, and he resigned from the club when his efforts did not yield results.

Dawson is bothered by the possibility of his club membership stirring a perception of racial insensitivity, and worries that his bid could be defined by this. He notes that his first hire at the state party was an African-American Persian Gulf War vet. This year the state party elected Glenn McCall as the only Republican National Committeeman from the South who is African-American, and the state elected the first black Republican state representative since Reconstruction. Two of the three African-American RNC members have endorsed his bid. In past cycles, South Carolina African-Americans have voted for Republicans much more than African-Americans in other states. Dawson notes that many African-Americans have socially conservative instincts, particularly on the issues of abortion and gay marriage, and that Republicans who reach out to those communities can achieve a significant level of support. (The presence of Obama on the national ticket this year reduced GOP support in this community.)

While every candidate has talked about strengthening the grassroots, Dawson has laid out perhaps the most ambitious plan, “Project 3141,” which aims to have a viable county party in all of the nation’s 3,141 counties, as well as fielding candidates in each of the 435 congressional districts.

Noting that every RNC chair candidate is putting together a project in that vein, Dawson declares “plagiarism is flattery,” and says that while he intends to win, if he does not win, he will assist the RNC chair in enacting any party-building plan.

* UPDATE: A reader writes in, "I'm guessing that may have been true on election night, but now that most states (except for Minnesota, insert Election Board joke here) are certified, McCain gained votes over Bush in: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia." I would note that in some of these states, the increase from Bush's total is pretty small — about 9,000 votes in Virginia, less than 3,000 votes in Alaska and less than 1,000 in Oklahoma.

12/19 10:22 AM Share