Last December, the Republican National Committee announced plans to build a “new, in-house think tank aimed at reviving the party’s policy heft.” Former RNC Chairman Mike Duncan wrote a memo to RNC Committee Members explaining the concept behind the so-called “Center for Republican Renewal.” “The Republican Party must not cede the policy field to the Democrats,” he wrote. “The Center for Republican Renewal will be dedicated to that proposition.” Greg Sargent reports that the GOP think tank was a short-lived concept:
The Republican National Committee, under new chairman Michael Steele, has quietly killed an ambitious plan to create the Center for Republican Renewal, a big in-house RNC think tank intended to develop new policies and ideas in order to take the party in a new direction, a Republican official who was directly informed of the decision by RNC staff tells me. […]
The decision to kill the Center leaves the RNC with “no policy office,” at least for the foreseeable future, according to the GOP official with direct knowledge of the decision.
During his victory speech, incoming RNC Chairman Michael Steele said, “We will cede no ground to anyone on matters of principle — on matters that matter to the people of this country.”
Update
Ben Smith reports that “Steele has requested the resignations of the entire RNC staff and signaled a dramatic turnover at the party organization.”
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