Belinda Cook

Illegal Contributions By Michael Steele's Sister Cost His Senate Campaign $54K In FEC Fines

Ryan J. Reilly | September 22, 2011, 11:40AM

Illegal contributions by the sister of former Republican National Committee Chairman and current MSNBC contibutor Michael Steele got his former Senate campaign fined $54,000 by the Federal Elections Committee, the agency disclosed this week.

It all started back in 2006, when Steele's sister Monica Turner hosted two fundraisers at her home in Bethesda, Md.

Invitations to the event said they were paid for by Steele for Maryland, Inc. But because the campaign was apparently low on funds, Turner paid $6,578.35 in catering, security and valet expenses for a July event and $7,850 in expenses for an October event.

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Topics: Belinda Cook, Campaign Contributions, Campaign Donations, Campaign Finance, FEC, Federal Election Commission, Michael Steele, Monica Turner

Republican National Committee

New RNC Chair Immediately Fires Steele's Lavishly Paid Convention Planners

Rachel Slajda | January 17, 2011, 11:19AM

Newly elected Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus, in one of his first official actions, has fired everyone on the RNC's convention planning committee.

The Committee on Arrangements became yet another source of ire for RNC members fed up with the RNC's overspending under erstwhile chair Michael Steele. The committee was lead by Belinda Cook, Steele's longtime aide, and staffed with her family and friends. Cook alone pulled in $15,000 a month for the job; altogether, her "cabal," as the Daily Caller once put it, were paid $139,923 in a single three-month period last year.

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Topics: Belinda Cook, Michael Steele, RNC, Reince Priebus, Republican National Committee

Michael Steele

Michael Steele's Longtime Assistant, Her Family Living Large On RNC's Dime

Ryan J. Reilly | November 30, 2010, 12:04PM

The 2012 Republican Convention in Tampa, Fla. won't get underway for another 636 days. But that hasn't stopped the Republican National Committee from spending over $636,800 on the convention more than a year and a half before it starts.

That's 18 times the amount spent that was spent in a comparable time frame four years ago, the Washington Post reported, causing more than a few raised eyebrows within the party.

Critics of RNC Chairman Michael Steele have also focused on a lucrative job given to his longtime aide, Belinda Cook, convention-related gigs given to her family and friends and a variety of large expenses footed by the RNC.

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Topics: Belinda Cook, Michael Steele, RNC