Patrick Ruffini reports by Twitter feed that his count of endorsements in the RNC Chair race is Anuzis 15, Blackwell 12, Dawson 7, Duncan 4, Steele 4.
(As mentioned yesterday, an endorsement might mean “I’ll vote for you in every round of voting,” or it might mean, “I’ll vote for you in the first round.”)
On his campaign home page, Saltsman lists endorsements from Bill Frist, Mike Huckabee, and Tennessee State House Republican Leader Jason Mumpower, but no RNC members, at least not yet.
One race watcher who prefers a rival of Michael Steele told me today that the endorsement from Florida Republican Party Chair Jim Greer “helps put Steele in the next category – he had really been lagging for awhile.” But they think Greer’s comparison of Steele to Florida governor Charlie Crist might be a bad sign for two reasons — one, Crist is moderate, and two, there’s some talk of Crist running for president in 2012. This person thinks the RNC members will be wary of any chair candidate who is too tied to a particular option for the 2012 nomination.