Conservatives did, however, have more of a say in the White House than they believed they would have after Chicago. The tension from the campaign remained, and Taft placed the blame, somewhat irrationally, on Dewey and his associates whenever Eisenhower deviated from a conservative position. Taft continued to view Albany and its like-minded colleagues as threats to a Republican administration, revealing the inferiority complex right-leaning operatives had when it came to dealing with the White House. Taft also believed that the White House and the RNC were withholding patronage appointments to punish his friends and associates. On July 1, he informed Kathleen Kennedy Brown that "the question of patronage is still a troublesome one."103 In January, Republicans expected to have 350,000 federal jobs to dole out to loyal supporters, but in late February that number was reduced to 110,000.104 Since the GOP had been out of power for twenty years, they did not have an established patronage operation in place at the start of Eisenhower's term. As a result, the RNC, now under the direction of former New York Congressman Leonard Hall, had to create one from scratch and a number of positions remained open while they sought out qualified Republicans.105 In some states, this necessitated compromises between the liberals and the conservatives. In Tennessee, for example, Reece worked with the state Eisenhower organization and set up a six-member commission to make employment recommendations, with three members coming from the Reece group 103 Robert A. Taft, Quoted in Patterson, Mr. Republican, 608. 104 Washington Post, 25 February 1953. 105 See, for example, Washington Post, 10 February 1953.