Del. Jeff Frederick, the new chair of the RPV, sent out a fundraising plea yesterday morning:
Just a few weeks ago, we began our efforts to provide bold, new leadership to the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV).
Yet, it hasn’t been easy.
RPV ran deficits in April, May, and now in June, and recent fundraisers have actually lost money.
If you’ve read recent press reports, the Obama campaign has placed hundreds of staffers in Virginia and are working at turning Virginia into a left-wing state.
Del. Frederick can fundraise on behalf of the RPV while the legislature is in session? That doesn’t seem kosher.
The same e-mail implores supporters to e-mail their legislators and tell them not to raise taxes for transportation. Frederick also lays out a bold new plan for funding transportation without raising taxes. One of those last two sentences contains a flagrant lie…can you guess which one?
Wow. I knew the RPV seemed to be in a death spiral, demanding ever-greater purity from their candidates based on the certainty that voters really support their policies, and the reason they’ve been steadily losing is that they haven’t been conservative *enough*. But I didn’t know about the financial side — with some business conservatives having declared they won’t donate any more after the takeover by Frederick and his ilk, I wonder if there’s a serious possibility they could actually go bankrupt…
Why stop fundraising when you go to the floor of the HOD? It happens all the time there, I am sure, at least the ‘scratch my back’ part.
The RPV is past the laughable stage.
Ok, here’s my prediction. Jeff Frederick has about 6, maybe as much as 8 months to turn that ship around and get the money flowing again. If he hasn’t done it by then, he will be forced out as Chair.
Picture yourself in the position of any of these County and City chairs all over Virginia who will be looking at the 2009 elections looming, the prospect of losing control of the House or (in a perfect world for them) regaining the Senate. If we get to early 2009 and the state party’s finances aren’t in a position to support local GOP campaigns, there will be a grassroots effort to force Frederick out.
I’ll go even farther out on a limb and say that we’ll know whether he’s going to get ‘er done by the end of September. At that point he’ll have had 3 whole months to raise money. As Jim points out, a lot of big donors threatened to bolt if Frederick was made Chair. So I figure that we’ll know by the end of the summer whether that was just bluster and whether Frederick has managed to mend fences or find new donors. Should Jeff Frederick fail to reverse those monthly deficits by then, he will lose his job as Chair.
No wonder he’s not keeping his word about giving up his House Seat. By November of 2009, I doubt he’ll still be Chair and then holding that seat will be the whole of his political career.
Why stop fundraising when you go to the floor of the HOD?
Because it’s illegal?
Actually, I know it’s illegal for members of the General Assembly to raise funds for their own campaigns while it’s in session; anyone know if it’s illegal to raise money for the party, like Frederick is doing?
Jackson — the Senate won’t be up again in 2009.
Actually, it’s only illegal for the legislature to fundraise during the regular session. What we have now is a special session, which means all is kosher: Democrats/Republicans can have a fundraiser at Capital Ale House with all the major lobbyists and then go vote on the transportation bill.
Jim E-H: “anyone know if it’s illegal to raise money for the party, like Frederick is doing?”
They cannot solicit funds during the regular session for the party committees. But the Democratic Party has their J-J Dinner every year during the regular session and most, if not all, Democratic legislators are in attendance. Technically, they are not soliciting, but the Republicans have been trying for the past two years to pass a law making it illegal for them to attend those kinds of functions.
I’d suspected that something like that might be at play here, but hoped it would be something a little less egregious. That seems like a pretty enormous loophole in the law.
Thanks so much for solving this mystery, Chris.
During the Warner budget fight in ’04, the Senate introduced a bill to close the loophole, but the House never bothered to hear it.
I can’t remember another time that the legislature tried to close the “special” session loophole.
I plan on reviewing the campaign finance reports filed in July to see who was taking what from whom in the days leading up to the special session…and during it as well.
What’s more telling is the gifts from lobbyists to legislators, but those won’t have to be disclosed by the legislature until next January…by that time, I think they’ll hope we have all forgotten.
Thanks for filling me in on the fundraising points I was too lazy to look up myself, Chris!