United Liberty

After seven rounds of voting, Reince Priebus won the race to be the next chairman of the Republican National Committee, defeating Saul Anuzis and Maria Cino, who was endorsed by Speaker John Boehner:

Wisconsin Republican party chairman Reince Priebus won a protracted fight for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee today, replacing his one-time ally Michael Steele at the helm of the committee.

Priebus led on every ballot but picked up momentum once Steele exited the contest after the fourth round of voting. (Steele endorsed former RNC official Maria Cino but it was Priebus who harvested most of the incumbent’s support.)

Priebus won the chairmanship — a simply majority of the 168 RNC committeemen and women — on the seventh ballot.

In addition to Steele and Cino, Priebus beat out former Michigan Republican party chairman Saul Anuzis and former ambassador Ann Wagner for the top job.

Throughout the race, Priebus was a reluctant warrior — waiting on the sidelines for weeks for Steele to step aside and, when that didn’t happen, saying little about his one-time ally during the final weeks of the process.

Everyone seems to be happy, Steele is gone. Based what I read about Priebus in the last couple of weeks, I’m not sure he’ll be much better, but Steele didn’t set the bar very high.

Below are the round by round results, courtsey of Politico.

Round 1

• Priebus: 45
• Steele: 44
• Cino: 32
• Anuzis: 24
• Wagner: 23

Round 2

• Priebus: 52
• Steele: 37
• Cino: 30
• Wagner: 27
• Anuzis: 22

Round 3

• Priebus: 54
• Steele: 33
• Wagner: 32
• Cino: 28
• Anuzis: 21

Round 4

• Priebus: 58
• Cino: 29
• Steele: 28
• Wagner: 28
• Anuzis: 24

Round 5

• Priebus: 67
• Cino: 40
• Anuzis: 32
• Wagner: 28

Round 6

• Priebus: 80
• Anuzis: 37
• Cino: 34
• Wagner: 17

Round 7

• Priebus: 97
• Anuzis: 43
• Cino: 28