Ryan Streeter
RNC political director Gentry Collins has issued a letter spelling out why he is resigning from the RNC. The letter is now in circulation and available here. It is a detailed, data-driven indictment of Chairman Michael Steele's leadership. He writes:
For the 2010 election year itself, RNC cash transfers to state parties for political purposes were just $13.1 million—less than a quarter of the $56.7 million cash transfers to state parties in 2006 for political purposes. And in 2010, the RNC went $15 million into debt to fund these programs.
He continues:
In the previous two non-presidential cycles, the RNC carried over $4.8 million and $3.1 million respectively in cash reserve balances into the presidential cycles. In stark contrast, we enter the 2012 presidential cycle with 100% of the RNC’s $15 million in lines of credit tapped out, and unpaid bills likely to add millions to that debt.
Collins goes on to say that he believes the GOP could have picked up 2 additional Senate seats and 3 governorships if the RNC had its fundraising act together. He attributes the lackluster finances, in part, to the fact that RNC's fundraising costs approached 70 cents on the dollar, compared to the more historical 50 cents. Expensive, and under-performing.
The letter is clearly timed to coincide with the ramp-up to the race for a new RNC leader, which Natalie Gonnella summarized this morning on The Republican.
What is perhaps most interesting is that finance issues Collins cites are a clear statement about where the center of party gravity is these days: NOT at the RNC.
The Center for Responsive Politics reports that Republicans out-raised Democrats $535,600,000 to $460,700,000 among individuals in the mid-terms. And, as Tim Carney notes today, Democrats raised considerably more from PACs, especially in the Senate.
The fact that the GOP won on Nov. 2 so resoundingly, with an impressive amount in individual donations, shows how irrelevant the RNC was to the whole victory.
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.