Steele, RNC Face Toughest Criticism Yet
Staring down the most inviting election cycle the party has seen in six years, the Republican National Committee could be tempting fate as its already controversial leader comes under the hottest criticism he's seen in his 15 months as chairman.
With the party's spending outpacing its relatively good fundraising, Michael Steele critics are on the rise -- and they're going public. A $2,000 expenditure at a West Hollywood, California strip club may have been the breaking point, but issues have been bubbling beneath the surface for months.
Sean Mahoney, one of 168 RNC committeemen, announced his resignation yesterday in a letter to Steele, which was provided to the New Hampshire Union Leader. "The scandal represents a pattern of unaccountable and irresponsible mishaps that ought to unnerve every fiscal conservative," he wrote.
Speaking last night with RealClearPolitics, Mahoney said "the issue at hand is bigger than Chairman Steele," and that he deserves credit for his work last year in helping elect Republican governors in New Jersey and Virginia -- but something needs to change.
"He was all hands on deck for both elections and that's what the RNC is supposed to be all about," Mahoney told RCP. "But there's been a disappointing drumbeat of stories about irresponsible spending at the RNC. A lot of folks are deeply concerned about spending habits at the RNC and are frustrated that a lot of those funds they're sending to Washington are being spent inefficiently."
Mahoney, a party activist who says he'll continue to work to get conservatives elected this year, is reportedly considering a bid for New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District, and his publicized resignation will certainly help him receive some attention from the local and national press. But he's far from the only Republican to express concern for what's going on at national party headquarters on First Street Southeast.
One RNC committeeman, speaking on background with RealClearPolitics, said Mahoney's feelings are likely felt by many of their fellow national committee members, but that there is not a movement among them at this time to remove Steele.
"I think there is a lot of concern frankly," the committeeman told RCP. "You'd have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to be aware that we have significant problems. Someone has to deal with Michael Steele himself -- or help him deal with them. But we have problems that are significant and widespread."
Former South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson, who finished second to Steele in the 2009 race for RNC chairman, told RCP yesterday he doesn't expect to see many more members resigning.
"But we're at the beginning of the storm, and we'll see what happens," Dawson said.
Just this week, Steele replaced RNC chief of staff Ken McKay, who helped direct the committee's 2009 gubernatorial campaign strategy. Because of McKay's exit, party strategist and Steele adviser Curt Anderson announced his firm would no longer work with the RNC. And Alex Castellanos, a party strategist who recently served as an unpaid adviser to Steele, told CNN yesterday that for the good of the party Steele may need to step down.
Castellanos suggested that some fundraisers are hesitant to contribute to the RNC based on their concerns with Steele. "A lot of that money is frozen - it's not coming into the party," he said, "and perhaps a change in leadership here would thaw that and allow that support to flow."
Steele has said in recent days that he will not resign his post despite mounting pressure from donors and the press to explain the party's spending and relatively woeful cash on hand. Steele has previously been criticized for holding the 2010 Winter Meeting at a lavish Honolulu resort, taking big payments for speaking engagements and for his national book tour, as well as several verbal gaffes.
But things have far worsened since the January gathering in Hawaii. Just prior to the Winter Meeting, senior Virginia committeeman Morton Blackwell expressed immense confidence in Steele. He predicted to RCP that Steele would be "one of the most successful national chairmen in history."
However, the party cannot financially afford to lose donors because of a lack of faith in RNC leadership, party insiders say.
"It is going to be one of the major problems we're going to have to deal with in order to be of the maximum benefit to our candidates," one national committeeman told RCP.
Dawson did not call for Steele to resign, but he said the national party needs to step out of the spotlight and let the state parties do their work.
"Sometimes we just need Washington to get out of our way," Dawson said. "We need the RNC to get off the front page of newspapers and let us do what we need to do this November."