There are a lot of folks running to be the next leader of the Republican National Committee (RNC). Current RNC Chair Michael Steele wants the job again. Former Missouri GOP chairwoman Ann Wagner is running. So are former deputy RNC chairwoman Maria Cino, and Wisconsin Republican Party Chair Reince Priebus.

There's also a fifth candidate purposely running with a lower profile, in hopes of waging a quiet campaign for the position that will show he's a leader who knows how to get stuff done. That would be Saul Anuzis, the former Michigan GOP Chairman. But don't let Anuzis' quiet profile catch you off guard. Turns out that Anuzis has some close ties to a fiercely anti-gay, anti-immigrant, white supremacist hate group leader who Anuzis once touted as the future of the Republican Party.

That hate group leader would be Kyle Bristow, who as a student at Michigan State University was the leader of a group known as Young Americans for Freedom (YAF). The group would soon become one of the more radical groups in the country, with Bristow and YAF known for some of the following: (a) hosting a Quran desecration contest, where participants would come up with 'creative' ways to deface the book; (b) hosting an event called "Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day"; (c) posting "Gays Spread AIDS" fliers all across campus; (d) holding an official position that "homosexuality kills people almost to a degree worse than cigarettes," and; (e) inviting Holocaust deniers to give speeches at Holocaust memorials. 

Yet in the wake of all of this, how did Saul Anuzis describe Kyle Bristow and his work?

"This is exactly the type of young kid we want out there," Anuzis said. "I’ve known Kyle for years and I can tell you I have never heard him say a racist or bigoted or sexist thing, ever."

The type of kid Anuzis wants out there is one who would legitimize Holocaust deniers, call homosexuality a disease, purposely destroy copies of the Quran with glee, and host games about detaining immigrants? That's really the type of profile Anuzis wants to welcome into the Republican Party?

Anuzis refuses to condemn the work of Kyle Bristow, or acknowledge his past support of Bristow's work. That needs to change. He's trying to run to be the leader of a major political party in the United States. Voters deserve to know whether Anuzis supports the type of work Bristow engages in, or whether he recognizes that it's something to condemn.