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.
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.
For some major GOP donors, both decisions were symbolic of the kind of wasteful spending habits they claim has become endemic to his tenure at the RNC. When Ken Mehlman served as the committee chairman during the critical 2006 midterm elections, the holiday party was held in a headquarters conference room and Chic-fil-A was the caterer.
“Michael Steele is an imperial chairman,” said one longtime Republican fundraiser. “He flies in private aircraft. He drives in private cars. He has private consultants that are paid ridiculous retainers. He fancies himself a presidential candidate and wants all of the trappings and gets them by using other people’s money.”
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.
7 comments:
Steele For President 2012
Every other week I receive a "survey" from the RNC asking for money. Then at the end, it states that if you cannot give a donation please enclose $15 to curb the cost of processing the survey. What a bunch of BS. When I donate my money, it will be to a candidate I choose. Not to a wasteful conservative. It makes me mad every time I receive that letter. Grr
A sheep in wolf's clothing?
I just hope he keeps helping the Republicans to victories.
He was hired as a token and he knows it. Figures he might as well get everything he can out of the old, white, men that were foolish enough to think they could use him.
Steele is wrong for the Republican Party. As is the case far too often, the Republicans thought putting a black man in position of being the face and voice of the Republican Party would change the impression that the Republican Party was only for and about old, rich white guys. Steele could have influenced that perception if Steele didn't talk like some old, rich white guy. If Steele focused more on rebranding the Republican Party instead of continuing the worn out tact of bashing Democrats, the Republicans might have had something special in Steele. As it is, he's having little effect on how many voters with disdain, distrust and indifference look at the Republican Party.
8:54 I was receiving those things for what seemed like every week. They have finally stopped. What really ticked me off was the entire idea that they thought I'd be stupid enough to think it was a legitimate survey, and that my answers would help the Republican Party revamp its platform. I mean, come on. Question: Do you like the direction in which Obama and the Democrats are taking the country? You can't insult my intelligence and then ask me to send you money. Until the Republicans stop bashing and start becoming more visible in presenting viable options to our problems, they'll be looked at as being nothing more than part of the problem and not part of any solution.
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