Steele, Michael 1958–

views updated

Michael Steele 1958–

Politician

Degrees in International Relations and Law

Entered 2002 Race for Lieutenant Governor

In a surprising electoral upset in 2002, Michael Steel became the first African-American candidate to win the Maryland Lieutenant Governor’s office as the Republican candidate. Not only did he and gubernatorial candidate Bob Ehrlich triumph over heavily funded incumbent Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend—who also had a formidable national profile as a member of the Kennedy family—the Republicans also managed to win in a state that had traditionally elected Democratic candidates. Ehrlich and Steele were the first Republicans to win the state’s top offices since 1968, a feat that Steele predicted would lead to future inroads in Maryland for the Grand Old Party. Shortly after his electoral triumph, Steele told Stephen Goode of Insight on the News that Maryland’s Republicans “just inaugurated a ten-year strategic plan in which we plan to grow’ our numbers, ‘grow’ our bank account and reach out to voters in a very forward-looking way, talking to them with common sense about kitchen-table issues.”

Degrees in International Relations and Law

Michael Steele was born on October 19, 1958, and was adopted by William and Maebell Steele. William died from complications of alcoholism when Steele was four years old, and Steele and his sister, Monica, were raised by Maebell and her new husband, John Turner, in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Maebell Turner worked as a laundress and John Turner drove a truck for the U.S. Department of Defense. Turner also served on occasion as a limousine driver for then-Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Although the family struggled financially, Steele’s mother refused to go on public assistance, a lesson that young Steele never forgot. As he told Goode, “She had been encouraged by family members and by our parish priest to go on welfare—’to take a government check,’ as she put it…. She said, ‘You know, I thought about it and I decided I didn’t want the government to raise my son.”

Steele entered Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations in 1981. After graduating from Johns Hopkins, Steele was invited to join the university’s Board of Trustees, a position he held until 1985. Raised as a Roman Catholic, Steele studied for two years at the Augustinian Friars Seminary at Villanova University after college. Although he ultimately decided not to

At a Glance…

Born on October 19, 1958, at Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George’s County, Maryland; adopted by Maebell and William Steele; married Andrea (Derritt) Steele, 1985; children: Michael II and Drew. Education: Johns Hopkins University, BA, international relations, 1981; studied at Augustinian Friars Seminary at Villanova University; Georgetown University Law School, JD, 1991. Politics: Republican Party. Religion: Roman Catholic.

Career: Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen, and Hamilton Law Offices, Washington, DC, Lawyer, 1991–97; Steele Group, Largo, MD, founder and CEO, 1998–; Maryland Republican Party, chair, 2000–02; Maryland lieutenant governor, 2002–.

Awards: Maryland State Republican Man of the Year, 1995; Vikki Buckley Political Leadership Award, Black America’s Political Action Committee, 2002.

Address: Office —Office of the Lieutenant Governor, State Capitol, Annapolis, MD 21401.

enter the priesthood, Catholicism remained an important force in his life. After working as a paralegal in Washington, D.C., in the mid-1980s, Steele entered Georgetown University Law School and earned his J.D. in 1991. His sister also flourished academically; after studying at the University of Virginia, Monica Turner became a medical doctor. On the Maryland Republican Party’s web site, Steele spoke of his family’s success in overcoming economic hardship as the basis of his identification with the Republican Party. “We are examples of what can happen when people are given opportunities, not handouts.” According to the same web site, Steele declared, when announcing his candidacy for lieutenant governor alongside Bob Ehrlich in the 2002 elections: “Our opponents will never understand that working parents and their children need only a chance to learn, to save, to succeed. Every child in this great state deserves an opportunity just like the ones Bob and I were given.”

In 1985 Steele married Andrea Derritt; he and his wife had two sons, Michael II and Drew. Andrea Derritt Steele, who completed her M.B.A. at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, worked as a banker and eventually rose to the position of vice-president at the Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C. She later put her career on hold to stay at home and raise the couple’s two sons.

Rising Star in GOP

In 1991 Steele joined the Washington, D.C., law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen, and Hamilton. He remained with the firm until 1997 and specialized in corporate and financial law. Steele worked not only with Wall Street clients but also in Japan and in the United Kingdom. In 1997 Steele left the law firm to work for the Mills Corporation, a real estate development company based in Virginia, and in the following year he founded the Steele Group, a consulting and lobbying agency based in Largo, Maryland. By that time he had already taken his first run for statewide elective office, in a bid for Comptroller that ended unsuccessfully.

Always interested in politics, Steele once served as student body president while attending Johns Hopkins University. Inspired by the presidency of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, Steele became active in Republican Party politics during that decade. In 1994 Steele was appointed the chair of the Republican Central Committee for Prince George’s County, Maryland, a suburban area adjacent to the nation’s capital that was home to thousands of upwardly mobile African Americans. Steele also served on several other Republican Party committees in Maryland, and in 1995 was named Maryland State Republican Man of the Year. Although his 1998 run for the Maryland State Comptroller’s office was unsuccessful, Steele advanced to the position of chair of the Maryland State Republican Party two years later. In gaining the office, he became the first African American to head a state Republican party branch. In 2000 Steele attended the Republican National Convention as a delegate from Maryland.

As he became a more prominent figure in Maryland’s Republican Party, Steele also became a target of criticism by his opponents. When Steele noted that he had taken a major pay cut to open up his own consulting and lobbying agency, Democrats trumpeted the $5,000 monthly salary that Steele drew from the Republican Party. A more pointed controversy arose in 2001 when Steele championed Republican proposals for redistricting legislative districts in Maryland. In response to Steele’s position, State Senate leader Thomas Miller, a Democrat, called his opponent an “Uncle Tom,” a phrase that implied that Steele had sold out the interests of African Americans in deference to the Republican Party. In a rebuttal released through The Maryland Republican Party’s web site, Steele declared, “As an African-American, I find Senator Miller’s remarks, and his plantation mentality, both offensive and beneath the dignity of his office.…African-Americans and all concerned citizens of our state should be aware of what his true colors are, and should know that he will attempt to preserve his own power without regard for the voters who put him in office.”

Entered 2002 Race for Lieutenant Governor

A frequently mentioned candidate for statewide office, Steele was asked in July of 2002 to join the ticket as the candidate for lieutenant governor with Republican Bob Ehrlich, who was running for governor. Early in the election the Republicans were not given much chance at winning the election as they faced a respected and well financed opponent in incumbent Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. Townsend also had a significant national profile as a member of the politically prominent Kennedy family. In an ironic twist, her father was the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, for whom Steele’s stepfather had occasionally worked as a driver.

The Townsend campaign was plagued by a number of missteps throughout the fall of 2002, including allegations that its supporters had distributed Oreo cookies at the candidates’ debate at Morgan State University in September of 2002 in order to question Steele’s pride in his racial identity. Ehrlich and Steele stuck to their major theme of fiscal responsibility in the campaign, however, and predicted that Townsend would raise taxes if elected. Helped by a visit from President George Bush, who raised $1.8 million in a record-setting fundraising appearance for the Republicans, Ehrlich and Steele emerged victorious on election day. Although their victory was part of a national trend toward Republican candidates in 2002, the outcome was nonetheless surprising in a state that had not sent Republicans to the two top offices since 1968.

In becoming lieutenant governor, Steele occupied the highest level office that an African-American had ever gained in Maryland’s history. Remarking on his feat, Steele told WBAL reporter Mindy Basara on election night, “Every Black child in this state—every child in this state—can picture themselves standing in my shoes tonight. That’s what opportunity is all about.”