Ken Mehlman

NEW YORK — Ken Mehlman, President George W. Bush’s campaign manager in 2004 and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has revealed to family and friends over the past few months that he is gay, he said in an interview yesterday.

It is a realization, he said, that he came to over time.

“At least for me, it wasn’t like there was a light-bulb moment,’’ he said. “It was an evolutionary process. The reality is, it’s taken me 43 years to come to terms with this part of my life.

“The process has been something that has made me a happier and better person. It’s something I wish I had done years ago.’’

The news was reported by Marc Ambinder, a political blogger for The Atlantic.

For the last few months, Mehlman has been quietly working as a strategist and fund-raiser for an advocacy group, the American Foundation for Equal Rights, that was formed to support a legal challenge to Proposition 8, California’s ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage.

In the past month, Mehlman had been working his thick Rolodex, built from his years in Republican politics, to help organize a fund-raiser for the group in September.

Mehlman was in Bush’s inner circle in both campaigns and ran his campaign for president in 2004.

But Mehlman, in his work as chairman of the Republican National Committee and as head of Bush’s campaign, tended to avoid social issues, arguing that they would undercut the Republican Party’s efforts to expand its appeal.

He was a leading figure in the Bush White House in pushing for the party to try to appeal to black and Hispanic voters.