For those who felt the RNC Chair race needed not one but two African-American Republicans who won a statewide race in 2002 but lost statewide elections in 2006, Ken Blackwell joins Michael Steele.

Simularities aside, one has to wonder whether Blackwell’s presence makes Steele’s road to the chairmanship more challenging. RNC committeemen are not uniformly clamoring for change, and there is likely to be a “change what we’re doing” bloc and the “Mike Duncan raises funds well and we know him well” bloc, and this would appear to further split the change bloc.