It looks like the Republican National Committee (RNC) has gotten itself into trouble again. This time they failed to report much of their debt to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) -- over $7 million worth of debt. Making matters even worse is the fact that the debt may have been intentionally hidden by the leadership of the RNC.
RNC treasurer Randy Pullen filed an amended report with the FEC on Tuesday, saying he had been unaware of the debt. He accused RNC chairman Michael Steele and his chief of staff Michael Leavitt of hiding the debt from him. Pullen said he had discovered $3.3 million of debt from April and another $3.8 million dollars of debt from May.
This could finally be the end for Steele as the RNC chairman. Hiding either contributions or debts from the FEC is considered a serious offense. The Washington Times writes, "Campaign-finance analysts said that simply misreporting fundraising numbers to the FEC can lead to millions of dollars in fines and that criminal charges can be levied if the actions are suspected to be intentional."
It looks like the RNC believes they may be in trouble. They normally let their in-house attorneys handle matters, but this time they have hired heavy-weight attorney and former FEC chairman Michael Toner to represent them. Steele has been hanging on to the chairmanship by his fingernails, but this may be the final straw that pushes him over the edge.
This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. This is the kind of thing that happens when a chairman is chosen for tokenism rather than competence.
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