Strategist for GOP quits, rips chairman

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Category: News

Created on Tuesday, November 16 2010 12:40

Posted or Written by: C2

By: Phillip Elliott

WASHINGTON — A senior Republican National Committee strategist quit Tuesday, leaving behind a scathing resignation letter that blasts committee Chairman Michael Steele for spending as much as 70 percent of donations on fundraising and credits other GOP groups for the party's gains.

Political director Gentry Collins sent RNC members and Steele a five-page outline of where he views the party as it heads into 2012's presidential election: broke and badly in need of repair.

Despite results on Nov. 2 that gave Republicans control of the House and gains elsewhere, Collins' farewell on RNC letterhead is a clear summary of the challenges Steele would face if he seeks another term in January.

“In the previous two nonpresidential cycles, the RNC carried over $4.8 million and $3.1 million respectively in cash reserve balances into the presidential cycles,” Collins wrote in the memo, first reported by Politico. “In stark contrast, we enter the 2012 presidential cycle with 100 percent of the RNC's $15 million in lines of credit tapped out, and unpaid bills likely to add millions to that debt.”

The RNC has raised more than $79 million this year and has spent all of it — and then some. Steele started the job with a $23 million surplus.

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