Steele to Guam

Alex Burns and I wrote after Michael Steele's election to lead the Republican National Committee that he'd won in part through an insight about the committee math: Island territories, from Guam to the Northern Marianas, may not have a voice in federal politics — but they compose a crucial Island bloc on the committee.

Elements of what we reported were extremely unwelcome news to mainland Republicans looking to retake Congress:

The residents of the five territories, from Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea to the tiny Northern Marianas in the Pacific Ocean, provided Steele with a bloc of 15 votes — one more than his margin of victory — when they swung into his camp late in the balloting last week.

Now, a leading committee member from the Virgin Islands, former shadow Sen. Holland Redfield, said they expect results.

"They've committed themselves into putting real, hard money into the races here in the [U.S.] Virgin Islands, Guam, [American] Samoa, Puerto Rico and the Northern Marianas," said Redfield, a leading figure in the territorial caucus at the RNC gathering.

"This was not just given to [Steele]," he said. "It was given based on commitments."

Redfield later said he didn't really mean that, but in any case, Steele will be spending a couple of days in the crucial month of September in ... Guam. He's arriving Sept. 7 for a fundraiser and headlining another fundraiser for the local party on Sept. 8 — activities that are good for his committee reelection but have little bearing on control of Congress.

Says Republican leader Felix Camacho in a press release:

The Republican slate for office this year is incredibly strong, and I am confident that Chairman Steele's visit will help the Republican Party secure the necessary resources we need to regain control of the governor's office as well as a majority in the Guam Legislature.

As part of Chairman Steele's mission to reinvigorate the Republican Party as well as attracting new voters, his visit to our island demonstrates that the Guamanian voters in the continental U.S. are an important part of this mission.

In the coming days, more details of the Chairman's agenda will be announced, and I strongly encourage every resident of Guam to participate as much as possible.