I was just handed a breakdown of the results from the 1997 RNC chairman’s race, which was the last one that was really contested. After the first ballot, the eventual winner, Jim Nicholson, was in a distant third place with just 23 votes (the first place candidate had 42 and the second place candidate had 41). But Nicholson won on the fifth ballot with 74 votes. Ken Blackwell’s team has said that this is the model they’re hoping to follow to win on one of the later ballots.
