In a serious blow to Mike Duncan’s reelection campaign for the top Republican post, Ken Blackwell, former Ohio Secretary of State, announced yesterday the endorsements of nearly two dozen conservative luminaries, including my friend and colleague Rob Bluey of the Heritage Foundation, the caveat being, of course, only one of the endorsers can vote when the committee gathers in late January to elect the next Chairman.

The 23 endorsements came after all 6 announced candidates responded to conservative icon and veteran GOP activist Morton Blackwell’s (no relation) questionnaire last month.  According to a Blackwell campaign press release, “The conservative endorsers noted that there were other good candidates, but all agreed that Ken Blackwell is the best choice.  They intend to contact grassroots conservatives across the country and ask them to urge the three RNC members from each state and U.S. territory to vote for Ken Blackwell for RNC chairman.”

Among the signers were leading social conservatives Tony Perkins and Dr. James Dobson, and well-known fiscal conservatives Steve Forbes and Pat Toomey, though Blackwell only has the public support of twelve RNC committee members.

Full list of endorsers, several of which, including Toomey and Forbes, endorsed Blackwell last month:

Gary Aldrich, Chairman, CNP Action, Inc.
Morton C. Blackwell, Virginia Republican National Committeeman
Robert B. Bluey, Contributing Editor, RedState
L. Brent Bozell, Founder and President, Media Research Center
Kellyanne Conway, CEO and President, the polling company, inc./WomanTrend
T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr., Former Domestic Advisor to President Reagan
James C. Dobson, Ph.D., Founder and Chairman, Focus on the Family
Becky Norton Dunlop, President, Council for National Policy
Stuart W. Epperson, Chairman, Salem Communications Corporation
Steve Forbes, Chairman & CEO, Forbes Media
Dr. Ronald Godwin, Vice Chancellor, Liberty University
Rebecca Hagelin, Author and Conservative Columnist
Colin Hanna, President, Let Freedom Ring
David Keene, Chairman, American Conservative Union
Tim LaHaye, Founder and President, Tim LaHaye Ministries
Ed Meese, Past President, Council for National Policy
James C. Miller, Past President, Council for National Policy
Tony Perkins, President Family Research Council
Ken Raasch, Chairman & CEO, Creative Brands Group
Alfred S. Regnery, Publisher, The American Spectator
Phyllis Schlafly, President, Eagle Forum
Pat Toomey, President, Club for Growth
Richard Viguerie, Chairman, ConservativeHQ.com

Not to be outdone in terms of RNC member endorsements, Mike Duncan won the support of RNC Co-Chair Jo Ann Davidson yesterday.

In an email to RNC members, Davidson writes:

I saw firsthand the daily tightrope Mike walked as he balanced his duties as a loyal soldier for the White House with his natural desire to be an independent voice for our party.  In recent weeks, it has been impressive to observe Mike’s excitement regarding the projects and initiatives he has planned for our party’s future. I know that his vision for a member-driven committee, an emphasis on our core conservative values, and a think tank and speakers bureau to fully engage great Republican minds and communicators across the nation will provide the first steps toward quickly positioning our party for victory in 2010 and beyond.

Like Blackwell, Davidson hails from Ohio, so her endorsement, while largely expected, will put a considerable strain on competing loyalties to the state party and national party apparatus – the latter, I suspect, will win out. And as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives for 20 years, 5 of which were spent as the first female Speaker of the House, the extent to which Davidson still controls the Ohio state party should not be underestimated.

If Duncan’s campaign is unable to quickly secure the support of the Ohio state party, they would do well to at least squelch any public support for Blackwell. They will need to build the narrative, true or false, that Blackwell is such an unfit candidate to lead the national Party that even his own home state — those who know him and his leadership qualities best — won’t endorse his candidacy. 

As if Chip Saltsman’s racially-charged Christmas gift wasn’t enough to sink his long-shot candidacy, it seems the social conservative establishment — Dobson, Dunlop, Godwin, LaHaye, Meese, Miller, Perkins — has begun coalescing around their candidate of choice: Blackwell. Sayonara, Chip.