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The Republican National Committee (RNC) is poised to elect a new chairman to serve as their master strategist following two elections that have proved disastrous for the party.

Michael Steele, GOPAC Chairman; Ken Blackwell, former Ohio Secretary of State; Chip Saltsman, former Chairman of Tennessee’s Republican party; Katon Dawson, chairman of South Carolina’s Republican party; Saul Anuziz, Chairman of Michigan’s Republican party; and current RNC Chairman Mike Duncan met in a debate sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform to make their case for the position.

The candidates agreed on most of the issues, including reaching out to more Ron Paul supporters, young conservatives, and minorities, but the majority of the debate rested on the specific steps each candidate would take.

Steele, who dismissed allegations that the Republican party was dead as “bunk,” said that in order to increase the party’s influence, the chairman would have to rally state leaders behind the cause.

“How long have we been talking about this? When are we going to start doing it, for goodness sakes? This isn’t anything any of us can do individually as chairman of this party. The state organizations are where the rubber meets the road…. They’re the ones with the courage and leadership at the national level to get it done,” said Steele.

Blackwell touched upon how the RNC could reach out to more voters by increasing the committee’s technological reach, complete with the recruitment of a Chief Technology Officer.

Anuziz suggested using the technological capabilities to do more than just campaign, claiming that it could be a key networking tool.

“We need this to be part of everything we do. And not just a certain section of what we do. And I think the way we do that is make it part of everything we run as a party because that is the best way to network every single grass roots activist that wants to be part of the system,” said Anuziz.

The candidates were asked if they had Twitter, and if so, how many followers they had. Steele and Dawson replied that they have around 300-400 followers and Anuziz claimed that he had just under 3,000. Blackwell responded that he used twitter, but also noted he had an impressive 4,000 friends on Facebook. Duncan explained that he did not have a twitter account himself, but understood how the website worked.

The candidates touched upon the notion that the party had deviated from its general values in recent years and discussed the need to be return to their roots.

“People come to Washington as rat killers, and a couple years later they’re rodent control officers and the rats are their constituents,” said Saltsman.

“We’ve got to make sure we elect people across this country … that know who they are and will stand up during the hard times, just like the folks have done in Florida, where they’re sitting with a budget deficits like they are in many states but have decided not to raise taxes but rather go after spending restraints.”