Racicot Set to Chair GOP National Committee

President Bush, acting swiftly to plug a hole in his political team, has chosen former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot to chair the Republican National Committee, party leaders said Tuesday.

The selection of Racicot, 52, is set to be announced today at the White House.

Racicot will succeed Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore, who announced his resignation Friday after months of tense relations with the White House.

One Republican party official, citing a key factor in the selection, said Racicot recognizes the role he is expected to play as titular head of the GOP.

“He understands the job is conveying the president’s message effectively on TV, attending fund-raisers across the country and not getting in the way of Karl Rove and Jack Oliver in the operational running of campaigns,” the official said.

Rove is the president’s chief political advisor and Oliver is the deputy installed by Rove to run day-to-day operations at GOP headquarters.

Racicot--whose name is pronounced “Roscoe”--will serve as the public face of the party in the 2002 elections, when control of Congress and 36 governorships will be at stake, including those of California, New York and Florida.

“They really wanted somebody who can go out and stir the troops,” said a Republican lobbyist who spoke with senior party and White House officials Tuesday. “Bush is not going to be doing the road game. Cheney is not going to be doing the road game.”

It will be Racicot, the lobbyist said, “who is going to go to the Orange County this-and-that.”

Racicot, who served two terms as Montana governor, supported Bush’s presidential candidacy early and served as a high-profile spokesman during the prolonged Florida recount.

He was considered for attorney general, but conservative activists protested that he was too moderate on social issues. Racicot took himself out of the running, citing family and financial reasons.

Those concerns remain after Racicot’s many years in public office, according to people who have recently spoken with him. Prior to being elected governor, he served four years as Montana’s attorney general.

The long-simmering tensions between Gilmore and the White House came to a head after the November elections, when the GOP lost the governorships of New Jersey as well as Gilmore’s home state of Virginia. He is due to step aside in January, when party leaders will convene in Washington to ratify Racicot as his successor.

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Barabak reported from Los Angeles and Brownstein from Washington. Times staff writer James Gerstenzang also contributed from Washington.