The Republican Governors Association announced its new leadership team today as the group prepares to grow the Republican Party through its Governors.

Governor Mark Sanford was voted Chairman of the Republican Governors Association. Governor Haley Barbour became the new Vice-Chairman. Governor Rick Perry is the Finance Chairman. Governor Charlie Crist will chair the Annual Gala and Governor Sonny Perdue will serve as Recruitment Chairman. Governor Linda Lingle, Governor Jim Douglas, and Governor Tim Pawlenty will also serve on the Executive Committee.

Sanford and Florida Governor Charlie Crist disagreed on how the GOP should move forward:

Governor Charlie Crist of Florida said the party nationally should follow Florida’s example and reach out to minority voters.

“The most important thing is to make sure that we reach out to Hispanic voters, to African-American voters,” Crist said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing today.

Sanford said he takes “a different tack toward getting there, but we’re after the same objective.” He urged fellow Republicans to do a better job of defining themselves as the party of limited government and lower taxes.

“The problem to a degree we’ve had as Republicans has been running on one message of conservatism and then governing a very different way,” Sanford said. “I think that the way that you appeal to blacks or Hispanics is to first of all carefully define what you’re about.”

“There are a lot of blacks, there are a lot of Hispanics that very much agree with that idea of limited government, less in the way of taxes,” Sanford said, because “it has everything to do with their respective hopes and dreams.”