Senator to get Republican chairman post

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), a prominent Latino who previously served in President Bush’s Cabinet, will assume the high-profile post of Republican National Committee general chairman, GOP officials said Monday.

Martinez, 60, will remain in the Senate when he takes the reins of the RNC in January, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting a formal announcement. The first-term senator will be the face of the party, focusing on fundraising, outreach and travel to promote the GOP agenda.

At the same time, Robert M. (Mike) Duncan, the RNC’s general counsel and a former party treasurer, will be named chairman. He will direct the everyday operations at the party’s Capitol Hill headquarters, 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.

Splitting the chairmanship in two is not new.

President Reagan once chose Sen. Paul Laxalt of Nevada to be general chairman while Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr. was chairman, and President Clinton initially had Sen. Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Don Fowler share the Democratic Party role in the same fashion.

Kerry Feehery, a Martinez spokeswoman, and her counterparts at the RNC declined to comment.

By tapping Martinez to be the party’s public persona, the White House turned to a lawmaker who has been a staunch supporter of the president -- including on the issue of comprehensive immigration reform that includes a guest worker program -- and one of the more politically savvy Republican senators.

Martinez, of Cuban descent, will fill the post as the GOP seeks to make inroads with Latinos, considered a swing voting group. He is one of three Latinos in the Senate along with Democratic Sens. Ken Salazar of Colorado and Robert Menendez of New Jersey.