According to Politico, big donors are abandoning the Republican National Committee because of Chairman Steele's free spending ways:Republican National Chairman Michael Steele is spending twice as much as his recent predecessors on private planes and paying more for limousines, catering and flowers – expenses that are infuriating the party's major donors who say Republicans need every penny they can get for the fight to win back Congress.Apparently, Michael Steele likes good food and exotic locales:
Most recently, donors grumbled when Steele hired renowned chef Wolfgang Puck's local crew to cater the RNC's Christmas party inside the trendy Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, and then moved its annual winter meeting from Washington to Hawaii.As a result, Politico claims, the GOP is entering this critical election year short on cash:
Once they arrive in Washington, Republicans seem to forget why they are there.When Steele took over the chairmanship last winter, he inherited a $23 million surplus. Since then, the former Maryland lieutenant governor has raised $10 million less than the party collected in 2005 and has spent $10 million more. By the end of 2009, the committee’s surplus had shrunk to $8.4 million, according to campaign finance reports.
Just last week, RNC officials touted a January fundraising haul of more than $10 million. But after hosting the sun-filled winter meeting in Hawaii, paying for the holiday party and taking care of other bills, the committee spent almost all of it. Consequently, the RNC added only $1 million to the committee’s $8.4 million in cash, the reports show.
PREVIOUSLY on problems with the Republican Party:
•Senate Republicans are despicable
•3 in 10 Californians identify with Tea Party protests
•GOP: a dead brand
•Republican self-destruction
•The Republican Problem: the party is like a lost dog
•Specter: Another Bush mistake
•The GOP establishment is lost
•In the Senate: Big-spending Republicans
•How the Republicans lost control of the Intelligence Committee
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