Mel Martinez, a
notoriously antigay U.S. senator from Florida who
previously served in President Bush's cabinet, will assume
the high-profile post of Republican National Committee
general chairman, GOP officials said Monday.
"Senator Martinez
was elected in 2004 by taking page 1 out of Karl
Rove's gay-baiting playbook," said Joe Solmonese,
president of the gay rights group Human Rights
Campaign. "His campaign was one of the most
antigay, bigoted, and divisive campaigns in the
nation's history. We are deeply troubled that
this kind of senator has been chosen to lead the
Republican Party."
Martinez, 60,
will remain in the Senate when he takes the reins of the
RNC in January, said the officials, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity to avoid preempting a formal
announcement. The first-term senator will be the face
of the party, focusing on fund-raising, outreach, and
travel to promote the GOP agenda.
At the same time,
Mike Duncan, the RNC's current general counsel and a
former party treasurer, will be named chairman and will be
put in charge of running the everyday operations at
the party's Capitol Hill headquarters, the officials
said. The current party chairman, Ken Mehlman, is
leaving his post in January at the end of his two-year term.
As a team,
Martinez and Duncan will be responsible for leading the RNC
during Bush's final two years in office and throughout the
2008 presidential election cycle.
"For
[Martinez] to be tapped as the head of the Republican Party
sends yet another message to our community and the
country that the Republican leadership is continuing
their old ways of rewarding slash-and-burn politics
instead of being interested in uniting the country,"
Solmonese concluded.
the HRC
issued a statement outlining Martinez's record
on equality and fairness:
- He scored a 0
on the Human Rights Campaign 2006 scorecard measuring
support for equality and fairness in the 109th Congress.
- He is an ardent
supporter and cosponsor of the antigay Federal Marriage
Amendment.
- Martinez has
been on the record opposing Republican senator John
McCain's states' rights stance on the marriage issue,
saying, "It isn't good enough to say, 'Leave it
up to the states. If we leave it up to the states, we
will see the erosion of marriage that we've seen by activist
courts, which we otherwise will not see if we protect the
institution of marriage at the federal level."
- He attacked his
2004 Republican primary opponent for supporting
hate-crimes legislation, accusing him of catering to the
"radical homosexual lobby."
- He ran a 2004
campaign that was so antigay and divisive that Florida
governor Jeb Bush called on him to stop the attacks. As a
result of his tactics, the St. Petersburg Times
revoked its endorsement after Martinez sent a mailer
against his opponent calling him "the new
darling of the homosexual extremists." (AP
contributed to this report)
