One year ago, when Columbia’s then-South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson finished second in a hotly contested race to become chairman of the Republican National Committee, it was unclear whether tensions between the state and the national party would snap or subside after his loss.

But in the past two weeks, as RNC Chairman Michael Steele has found himself engulfed in scandal and his neck stretched out over a public chopping block, top Republicans in South Carolina have got his back. 

They have reason to: Above all else, South Carolina Republicans want to preserve their first-in-the-South presidential primary. Maintaining a strong relationship with the RNC — and whoever leads it — is crucial to that effort.

Katon Dawson finished second behind Michael Steele for head of the RNC. File photo.

The RNC is the political arm of the national Republican Party. There are some 160 members of the organization tasked with recruiting candidates, fundraising and organizing the Republican National Convention. The RNC runs on money from Republican donors nationwide.

In late March, scandal erupted when news reports indicated that a nearly $2,000 tab from an adult nightclub in West Hollywood had been expensed to the RNC.  

Since then, some say sharks have been circling Chairman Steele, while others say his job is safe. On April 4, RNC Chief of Staff Ken McKay resigned as a result of the scandal.

The morning of March 30, Dawson told Free Times it would be inappropriate to comment about Steele or the RNC. He said he’d moved on and it wouldn’t be advantageous to talk about his feelings about him or the organization. But later that day, Dawson told The Washington Post that the RNC needed to demonstrate fiscal responsibility at a time when Republicans were criticizing Democrats on spending issues.

Meanwhile, both of South Carolina’s RNC committee members are backing up Steele big time.

Glenn McCall, a Rock Hill Republican and financial services executive, was the first black RNC committeeman elected in South Carolina. Though he voted for Dawson last January for the national chairmanship, McCall says the state committee members have been able to build a strong rapport with Steele.

“As far as Chairman Steele taking over and Katon running against him, we’ve had to come back and really assert our presence,” McCall says. “I think our role and involvement has been very positive.”

The No. 1 job for the Palmetto State when it comes to the RNC is preserving the role of the state’s presidential primary, McCall says.

Since 1980, no presidential contender has gotten the GOP’s nomination without winning the South Carolina primary. Being a smaller state with a hardcore conservative electorate, McCall says South Carolina is more strategic and less expensive for candidates than, say, Florida or Texas. Both of those states have expressed interest in being first.

McCall rebuffs criticism of Steele and characterizes calls for his resignation as “good television entertainment.”

Charleston GOP activist and high-ranking RNC committeewoman Cindy Costra was actually with Steele in Tampa, Fla., when the news about the controversial RNC expenditure broke.

She says Steele warned her and other members that their BlackBerrys were probably going light up about it any minute.

She believes news reports have mischaracterized the incident.

“Michael Steele has been very careful with the RNC funds,” Costa says. “He has gone in and tried to streamline the operations and he has been as careful as any chairman I’ve worked under.”

Costra has been a committee member since 1996.

She says any efforts to oust Steele are not coming from within the RNC.

“Michael Steele is an earnest man that’s trying to do a good job and I think he’s done an excellent job with the RNC,” she says. “I think he’s leading us in a very open, honest way.”

Palmetto State sources close to the RNC say Steele’s job isn’t in jeopardy regardless of national media attention that might portray it otherwise.

What happens after the November elections, though, is anyone’s guess.

As Dawson points out, “politics is a vicious cycle.”