Michael Steele

This page is about the Maryland politician. For others of the same name, see Michael Steele (disambiguation).

Michael S. Steele (born October 19, 1958) is the current Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, having been elected on the same ticket as Governor Robert L. Ehrlich in 2002. He is the first African American to serve in a Maryland state-wide office, and the first Republican Lt. Governor in the state since 1970, when the position was created.

Childhood, Education and Early Career

Steele was born on October 19, 1958 at Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George's County. Steele spent his childhood in the Petworth neighborhood in northwest Washington, D.C. Steele has described his small community as being a racially integrated oasis of stability in the 1960s, a very turbulent era in the nation’s Capitol. He was one of two children raised by mother Maebell Turner and stepfather John Turner. Steele’s sister Monica later married and divorced Mike Tyson, the famous boxer.

Steele attended and graduated from Archbishop Carroll High School in northeast Washington, D.C. While at Carroll, Steele was in the Glee Club, the National Honor Society, many of the school’s drama productions but, by most accounts, was not much of an athlete. During his senior year, 1976-77, he ran for student council president and won.

Steele won a scholarship to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. At Hopkins, Steele was elected class president and was a member of the fencing team. Johns Hopkins awarded him a bachelor's degree in international relations in 1981.

After college, Steele spent three years as a seminarian in the Order of St. Augustine in preparation for the priesthood. He entered the Augustinian Friars Seminary at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. As a seminarian, he taught freshman world history and senior economics for one year at Malvern Prep School in Malvern, Pennsylvania, but ultimately decided his calling was better suited to a career in civil service and he left the Seminary prior to taking the vows.

Steele then entered law school at Georgetown University Law Center and received his law degree in 1991. He landed a prestigious position as a Corporate-Securities associate attorney at the Washington, D.C. office of the international law firm of Cleary, Gottlieg, Steen & Hamilton. From 1991 to 1997, Steele specialized in financial investments for Wall Street underwriters, working at Cleary’s Tokyo office focusing on major product liability litigation and at its London office on corporate matters. Steele left the law firm when his political and civic activities led his career away from the partnership track. He then founded the Steele Group, a business and legal consulting firm. But at this point, his increasing political activities became a priority and his business was relatively unsuccessful.

Political Development

Steele grew up in a Democratic household, but was given the values that he said later led to his switch to the Republican party. Steele’s mother was a widowed laundress who worked for minimum wage rather than accept public assistance. A photo of President John F. Kennedy hung on the family's living room wall, alongside renderings of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jesus. Steele was brought up devoutly Roman Catholic. Although Steele cast his first presidential vote for Democrat Jimmy Carter at the age of 18, he was soon drawn to the Republican Party, because, as he described it, “my mama raised me well. She provided me with a sense of an individual working hard and being responsible for his actions. As I grew older, I soon identified with the GOP.”

After joining the Republican Party, Steele became chairman of the Prince George's County Republican Central Committee. In 1995, the Republican Party selected him as Maryland State Republican Man of the Year. He worked on several political campaigns, was an Alternate Delegate to the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego and a Delegate to the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia that ultimately elected President George W. Bush.

In December 2000, Steele was elected chairman of the Maryland Republican Party [1] (http://www.mdgop.org), becoming the first African American ever to be elected chairman of any state Republican Party. In early 2002, after Maryland Governor Parris Glendening (D) tried to implement a partisan redistricting plan, Steele successfully challenged the plan in the court. The plan was ultimately overturned and redrawn by the Maryland Court of Appeals.

Lieutenant Governor of Maryland

In 2002, then-Congressman Robert L. Ehrlich selected Steele as his running mate and nominee for Lieutenant Governor in the campaign against Lieutenant Governor (under Governor Parris Glendening) Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. Steele then resigned his chairmanship of the Maryland Republican Party to campaign full-time. Ehrlich's selection of Steele for Lt. Governor proved a striking counterpoint to Townsend's pick. Townsend had considered and rejected several prominent African-American Democrats to pick as a running mate, but she picked Charles R. Larson -- a white retired admiral who recently switched parties and had no prior political experience.

In the September Primary election, Ehrlich-Steele had no credible opponent. In the November 2002 General election, even though Maryland traditionally votes Democratic and had not elected a Republican Governor in almost 40 years, the Ehrlich-Steele ticket beat the Townsend-Larson ticket 51% to 48%.

Since his election, Steele’s most prominent efforts for the Ehrlich Administration have been reforming the state’s Minority Business Enterprise program and chairing Governor Ehrlich’s Commission on Quality Education in Maryland.

The Ehrlich-Steele relationship has been remarkably free of the discord that has historically enveloped previous Governors and Lt. Governors under Maryland’s gubernatorial system. This could be a result of perceiving opponents on all sides – in a hostile Democratic legislature as well as in the The Baltimore Sun and Washington Post newspapers. Steele recently participated with Russell Simmons in a Hip Hop Summit at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

National Prominence

Recently, Steele has received national prominence due to his stature as a successful elected conservative Republican African-American and his speaking ability. The Republican National Committee and President George W. Bush’s campaign gave him a prime time speaking slot at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City. Steele gave the Republican counterpoint to the Democrat’s Barak Obama in a speech that received wide acclaim. In April 2005, President Bush chose Steele as one of three members of the United States delegation at the investiture of Pope Benedict XVI at the ceremonial mass in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City. Steele was joined by the president’s brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and Knights of Columbus Chief Executive Officer Carl A. Anderson.

2006 Elections

Since March 2005, when Paul Sarbanes, Maryland’s longest serving United States Senator, announced that he would not be a candidate in 2006, top state and national Republican officials have been pressing Steele to become their party's nominee for the Senate seat that's been occupied by one man for nearly three decades. In April 2005, in a front page article titled, “Steele attracts strong support in Senate race,” The Baltimore Sun announced the results of a poll it conducted, stating that Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele would run neck and neck against either former NAACP head Kweisi Mfume, Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin of Baltimore County or Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Montgomery County. The pollster stated in the article that, “[Steele’s] a political force to be reckoned with. You're looking at him against the most-known Democratic leaders, and he's still going toe-to-toe against them at this point.”

The primary elections will be held on September 12, 2006, and the general election will be on November 7, 2006.

Steele is married to Andrea and they have two sons, Michael and Drew.

See also

• Government of Maryland
• Lt. Governor of Maryland

Sources

• Mosk, Matthew, Washington Post, With Sarbanes Retiring, Senate Interest Simmers, March 28, 2005 [2] (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/03/27/AR2005032700822_pf.html).
• Green, Andrew A., The Baltimore Sun, Steele attracts strong support in Senate race, April 18, 2005 [3] (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.senate18apr18,1,240443.story).
• The Baltimore Sun, Michael Steele Joins Presidential Delegation In Rome, April 23, 2005 [4] (http://www.davidwissing.com/index.php/3941).
• State of Maryland Office of Minority Affairs, MBE Commission, Feb. 27, 2004 [5] (http://www.mdminoritybusiness.com/mbeCommissionWhat.html)].
• Ebrown, Russell Simmons and Michael Steele, April 24, 2005 [6] (http://www.visioncircle.org/archive/003839.html).
• Maryland Republican Party, State Party Biography of Lt. Governor Michael S. Steele [7] (http://www.mdgop.org/site/pp.asp?c=6oIKKZMFF&b=186416).
• The Honorable Michael Steele [8] (http://www.publicforuminstitute.org/activities/2003/dc2/msteele.pdf).
• Stratton, LaShell, The Common Denominator, Mr. Steele goes to Annapolis: A D.C. kid really can grow up to be lieutenant governor, April 7, 2003 [9] (http://www.thecommondenominator.com/040703_news1.html).
• Abruzzese, Sarah, Capital News Service, Steele joins U.S. papal delegation, April 23, 2005 [10] (http://www.capitalonline.com/cgi-bin/read/2005/04_23-32/TOP).

External links

• Bio from official site (http://www.gov.state.md.us/ltgovernorbio.html)
• Michael Steele, one of the rising stars of the GOP (http://www.mdgop.org/About/About.cfm?ID=784&c=7)
• Text of Steele's speech to the 2004 GOP convention (http://www.2004nycgop.org/cgi-data/speeches/files/p2u92v0w95tp269q77ze18dl7hj5154x.shtml)
• Text of a Feb. 2005 GOP interview with Steele (http://www.gop.com/News/Read.aspx?ID=5213)