Michael Steele’s Republican National Committee is leaking frustrated officials like a sieve. For the second time since the Republican Party’s epic wins on Nov. 2, one of the professionals at the RNC has bailed on the committee while offering a behind-the-scenes view of a total fiscal collapse.
The Washington Post reports Boyd Rutherford, chief administrative officer, sent a letter to RNC political staffer Derek Flowers today warning him that the “that many of those who provided political services to [the RNC] during the 2010 election would not be paid this week as originally planned.”
The reason, according to the letter, is a “cashflow challenge” at the committee. Now Flowers, who the Post reports had planned on staying at the RNC until the many vendors that served the party this year were paid, will “in fact be leaving the RNC today.”
The RNC told the Post that all the debts will be “paid in a timely manner,” but Steele’s growing chorus of detractors will likely point to the letter as yet another example of the committee’s gaffe-prone chairman failing to properly manage the less exciting aspects of his job — like fundraising.
In November, Steele’s political director, Gentry Collins, resigned in a letter to voting RNC members that attacked Steele for not raising enough money to keep the Republicans competitive in over a dozen races he listed in his letter.
Collins is now just a formal announcement away from running for RNC chair himself, a job Steele has not yet said if he will seek again.
As the Post reports, the new information about money problems at the RNC come at an extremely inopportune time for those party members still on Steele’s side:
“The [Rutherford letter] comes on the eve of the committee’s final — and much anticipated — fundraising report with the Federal Election Commission, which is due by tomorrow.”
