Manager of Steele Senate Campaign Steps Down

The man hired to run Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele's campaign for U.S. Senate has resigned, an internal move disclosed for the first time yesterday in the aftermath of an off-balance week for the Republican candidate.

Campaign manager Graham M. Shafer made a quiet exit earlier this month, citing family obligations, a campaign spokesman confirmed yesterday. His departure highlighted a growing tug within the Steele campaign between the candidate's Washington advisers and his coterie of longtime loyalists from Maryland, of which Shafer was one.

That internal struggle intensified last week, sources said, as Steele sought to minimize damage caused when he equated stem cell research to the experiments Nazi doctors conducted on Jews during World War II while speaking to a Baltimore Jewish group.

As criticism of the remark had Steele hustling to issue profuse apologies, national GOP officials were clashing with Steele's longtime advisers on how to handle the crisis, said three well-placed sources, all of whom spoke on the condition that they not be named because they were divulging internal campaign deliberations.

"To some degree, this had to be expected," said a Republican source in Annapolis who has watched the campaign closely. "This race is very important to people in Washington. But they don't know Maryland like Michael does."

One Washington figure who does know Maryland well, and who is taking a more hands-on role in the campaign, is national GOP Chairman Ken Mehlman, Steele confirmed during a brief interview at the State House yesterday.

Mehlman is a native of Pikesville, a suburb north of Baltimore, and he ran President Bush's 2004 reelection campaign before becoming party chairman. He has made electing black Republicans a key goal nationally and has focused considerable personal attention on Steele.

"Ken Mehlman is very, very interested in this campaign," said one source, who added that Mehlman has "provided references and suggested people" to succeed Shafer as campaign manager, including the candidate who is favored to get the position.

Shafer, a Maryland native whose ties to Steele date back more than a decade, did not return a message left at his home last night. Campaign officials declined to publicly disclose the reasons for Shafer's departure, beyond saying he had difficulty balancing the rigors of the campaign with those of being a new father.

"But he deserves great credit for one of the best campaign launches in recent memory," said Leonardo Alcivar, a campaign spokesman.