...The core of Steele’s winning coalition were the RNC’s newer members—people like Preibus and mostly-unknown state party chairs like Jim Greer of Florida and Bob Tiernan of Oregon.
Half of Steele’s 21-person “whip team” on the committee rose to their current Party leadership roles after the disastrous election of 2006. They’re the brave ones who swam toward the sinking ship.
...As a conservative Catholic, Steele hit expected right-wing high-notes, but he also talked about school choice for urban children and long-term solutions to poverty. Steele carries three Blackberries and is prone to flurries of past-midnight emails, and he made a convincing case that he would bring the GOP’s campaign technology into the digital age.
...In short, Steele built a leadership team—and a winning campaign—with tactics, ideas, and coalitions rarely before used in the GOP. Steele promised to shake things up at party headquarters—and to the old guard’s surprise, the new RNC was in a mood to shake...
