NRCC Blues

Still reeling from the recent loss in IL-14, here is more bad news for the NRCC: they apparently had even less cash-on-hand than they thought at year's end, due to massive fraud by their former treasurer, Christopher Ward.

The National Republican Congressional Committee overstated by 0,000 its cash on hand as of Jan. 31 because of fraud allegedly committed by a former employee, an NRCC document obtained by Roll Call reveals.

An ongoing investigation into accounting irregularities at the NRCC has determined that ex-committee Treasurer Christopher J. Ward allegedly funnelled "several hundred thousand dollars" from the NRCC into his own bank accounts since at least 2004. The probe has also found that Ward submitted to the NRCC’s bank and to House GOP leadership "bogus" audit reports for years 2002-2005, with an additional "bogus" audit report provided to the NRCC’s bank for 2006.

An NRCC document detailing this information and prepared for the NRCC executive committee for presentation this afternoon represents the first time Ward has been publicly named by the NRCC as the culprit in the accounting scandal.

The NRCC didn't have a lot of money to begin with, so this is exceptionally unfortunate, particularly as it's also a rather nasty and embarrassing scandal. Not an exciting sex scandal involving prostitutes and/or diapers, fortunately for them, but you can't have everything.

Part of the NRCC's well-documented fundraising woes has been due to a realignment of its fundraising strategy. Since the ascension of Tom Cole to the NRCC chairmanship, the committee has apparently focused on rebuilding its direct-mail operation at the expense of telemarketing, which had previously made up the lion's share of NRCC fundraising:

The changes are expected to pay dividends in future election cycles — but not in time to help House Republicans in what is turning out to be a very difficult 2008 cycle.

...

"You have to think of the long term. That usually calls for some people being willing to have less so that their successors can have more," Cole said. "It will take several cycles, in my opinion, to get where we need to go."

Of particular interest in this Roll Call piece, however, is one point which indicates a tremendous advantage that the DCCC has, and will hopefully maintain into the future: a significantly larger list of online donors:

But at the DCCC, where contributions have spiked considerably now that the Democrats are in the majority, the fundraising breakdown is approximately one-third grass roots, which includes phones, mail and especially online contributions; one-third Member transfers; and one-third major donors.

Direct-mail fundraising is generally preferable over telemarketing, since it costs less to raise money through the mail than it does over the phone. Internet donations are even less expensive. The DCCC, with an online donor file of more than 2 million contributors, would appear to have an edge over the NRCC.

The NRCC is turning to direct mail because, once a significant donor file is built, it is far cheaper to raise money via mail than over the phone. Democrats, however, have an even cheaper and lethally effective way of soliciting donations; via the Internet.

So it is left for the Republicans to use everything they have in their arsenal to catch up with the DCCC's fundraising advantage this cycle; in this case, they've been forced to call in the big dogs, like the Decider himself.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, which has lagged far behind its Democratic counterpart in fundraising this election cycle, went some distance toward closing that gap tonight – with a little help from President Bush.

With Bush headlining the dinner going on right now at the Washington Hilton Hotel, the GOP's House campaign operation is reporting receipts of more than .6 million. The one-night haul exceeds the .4 million total cash on hand the party committee reported at the end of January.

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The NRCC still has a fair distance to go to catch up to Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which reported .5 million cash on hand at the end of January.

.6 million is a good bit of change, although I don't think that takes into account the cost of putting together these gala events. And they'll need every dime of it, after dumping .2 million into a losing race in IL-14.

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