But the damage control may be coming too late — not for Steele, whose job seems safe, but for the RNC itself.
The RNC's latest made-for-Jon Stewart sex-related slip-ups — combined with Steele's previous string of well-publicized gaffes and missteps — are threatening to damage the party's already lagging fundraising efforts. And that could limit the number of races Republicans win in what's otherwise shaping up to be a good year for the GOP.
“Raise more money, talk less,” said longtime GOP lobbyist Ed Rogers, voicing the sentiment of at-their-wits'-end Republican professionals. Steele "is in a fragile situation. He and his organization must be very sure-footed and quiet for the next few months.”
But the RNC suffered another blow Thursday, when POLITICO reported that one of the party's fundraising letters mistakenly directed would-be donors to call a telephone number belonging to a phone-sex operation.
Recognizing the damage they've suffered from the bondage-club story — and the need to mollify fretful donors, activists and operatives — RNC officials are reorganizing the way the party approves expenditures and are bringing in former RNC chief counsel Tom Josefiak to head the process.
Josefiak will work to tighten RNC spending while scrutinizing committee spending practices closely, according to New Jersey Republican Committeeman David Norcross, who spoke with Steele on Thursday afternoon.
Norcross said that Josefiak's mission is to crack down on the kind of accounting practices that allowed a nearly $2,000 expense at Voyeur to show up on the party’s fundraising disclosure form.
"That should have never happened," Norcross said. RNC spokesman Doug Heye confirmed Thursday night that the party was making changes in its "review and approval process" — "per Chairman Steele's direction."
But the most consequential development of the RNC’s unholy mess of a week didn’t involve leather or naughty talk but, rather, the sharply worded comments from one of the most prominent social conservative leaders in the party. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins used his regular newsletter to members to urge them to stop giving money to the national GOP.
"This latest incident is another indication to me the RNC is completely tone-deaf to the values and concerns of a large number of people they are seeking financial support from,” Perkins wrote.
Perkins’s comments won’t suddenly dry up fundraising from the party’s Christian conservative base. But by going public, he offers cover to other Republican leaders and activists to stop giving to the committee.
The RNC’s public relations fiascoes also make the party’s image-conscious politicians want to keep their distance from the committee — which in turn deprives the committee of fundraising draws.
A high-dollar reception slated to coincide with the Southern Republican Leadership Council’s meeting next week in New Orleans, for example, right now does not include any of the party’s biggest names. And the effort to lure contributors by highlighting “invited guests” on the invitation — a time-honored fundraising sleight of hand — blew up when Sarah Palin’s camp told POLITICO that they had twice asked the committee to remove her name.
Palin, probably the biggest fundraising "get" in GOP politics at the moment, “will not take part in any RNC fundraiser in New Orleans,” an aide said.
While many Republicans blame Steele for the party's fundraising struggles, few want to see him tossed out of his job.
I "have heard of no one calling for his removal," said South Carolina national committeewoman Cindy Costa.
Steele would have to be forced out by a two-thirds vote of the national committee, and those members don’t show any appetite for launching a coup against their first African-American chairman at a time when the party desperately needs to increase its appeal among minority voters.
But many prominent Republicans are now starting to worry that, under Steele’s leadership, their prospects to recapture one or both chambers of Congress could be weakened because they simply don’t have the money to give to the two congressional campaign committees and state parties.
"The question is not Michael Steele," Karl Rove said this week in San Francisco. "The question is the management of the building and whether the procedures are in place to spend money on elections — and not to spend money on jets and bondage clubs."
A well-connected member of the RNC who has not been among Steele’s loudest critics was more direct.
“This is madness,” said the committee member. “He just continues to erode any confidence he has on the committee.”
The RNC has $9.4 million in the bank right now, which is less than it had at the same point during the last midterm elections four years ago. Party officials note that they then had a Republican president in the White House, making it considerably easier to raise money. And Heye said that the party has added 556,000 first-time donors since Steele took over the committee.
But plainly, the national party is not going to be able to offer the sort of assistance this year that candidates and other committees may have been counting on. In 2006, for example, the RNC gave the NRCC more than $25 million. The total so far this year: $2 million.
“The crux of the issue ... isn’t necessarily what they are spending money on but how little money they have compared to 2006,” said a top party strategist. The strategist said that the entire budget for this year's Victory programs — which help state parties' get-out-the-vote efforts — is just $10 million.
"They keep saying they are right on their fundraising targets, but that is a little misleading because they’ve lowered their goals to the point of being completely ineffective in a cycle where 40-plus states will have targeted races and Steele is implementing a 50-state strategy where he’s spending at least $35K in every single state,” added the strategist.
Not all Republicans blame Steele for the party's plight.
“Overall he’s done a good job,” said Colorado GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams, a longtime party strategist. “I’m willing to give him benefit of the doubt.”
But asked what advice he’d have for the national chairman, Wadhams said, “Chairman Steele needs to focus on the basics of doing what he needs to do for the RNC.”
And what would those fundamentals be?
“Fundraising, and basically that’s it,” Wadhams said.
David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer
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