With the race for Chairman of the Republican National Committee heating up, it was only a matter of time.

On Monday evening, DraftMichaelSteele.com, a Web site designed to encourage the GOPAC Chairman and former Maryland lieutenant governor to run for the RNC's top post, went live.

 As it turns out, Jeff Burton, the chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Michael Conaway (R-Texas), and Ryan Gravatt, a Texas-based political strategist, are the founders of the site, which as of early Tuesday afternoon had attracted 61 members on the social networking Web site Facebook.com. In a telephone interview, Gravatt said he and Burton came up with the idea for the Draft Michael Steele site late last week during a discussion about the GOP's faring in the election.

If there was a lesson from Tuesday's results it was that, "now is the time to start a bigger tent and bring everyone in," Gravatt said, and that Steele had the ability to appeal to those on the right and the left.

"I think Michael Steele is the best chance the party has right now for rebuilding and bringing a bigger tent," Gravatt said.

Gravatt said that when he and Burton saw Steele speak a year ago, "We just sort of looked at each other, and we were like, ‘This guy is going to go places.'"

The site is intended purely as a grassroots-oriented effort and doesn't have any money behind it, its founders say.

 Steele is widely viewed as a potential candidate for the chairmanship, though he has not publicly declared his candidacy. Other candidates said to be interested in the post include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson, Chip Saltsman, who managed Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign, and former RNC official Chuck Yob.