Priebus is frontrunner in Friday’s RNC chair election

Milwaukee attorney Reince Priebus will learn Friday if he will be the next chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC).
Priebus, who engineered a seamless coalition between Republican Party and the Tea Party to sweep the Nov. 2 election in Wisconsin, is the perceived frontrunner in the national media to replace embattled RNC chairman Michael Steele.
The 168 RNC members are scheduled to vote on the chairmanship Friday.
In the latest count from the National Journal, Priebus had 40 committed votes, Steele had 17, former Missouri GOP chair Ann Wagner had 15, former Michigan GOP chair Saul Anuzis had 14, and former deputy RNC chair Maria Cino had 12.
That leaves 70 committee members who have not publicly declared their choice.
The contest could go for multiple rounds of balloting until one candidate receives the magic number of 85 for a majority. Steele won the 2009 race on the sixth ballot, out of a field of five candidates.
Newly elected U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin sent RNC members a letter touting Priebus for the job, saying, "His efforts were particularly helpful to me. With no previous political experience, I had to have a trusted confidant to rely upon and a strong state party organization that enabled my campaign to reach deeply into the grassroots. Reince provided both."
– BizTimes Milwaukee