RNC

RNC Calls Obama's $500K Conference Spending Cap, Proposed By A Republican, 'Wasteful'

Ryan J. Reilly | May 14, 2012, 4:15PM

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)

The Republican National Committee mocked guidelines issued by the Obama administration on Friday that will make agencies seek special permission to spend over $500,000 on a conference, calling the policy "wasteful." What the RNC might not have realized is that members of their own party proposed a cap in the exact same amount.

New spending guidelines issued on Friday in the wake of the GSA scandal require top level officials to review conference spending over $100,000 and generally bans conferences that cost over $500,000.

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RNC

Did The RNC Consider Mailing Out Illegal 'Census' Forms?

Ryan J. Reilly | February 16, 2012, 6:04AM

A 2010 mailing from the Republican National Committee with the words "Census Document" was so controversial that Congress passed a law making such tactics illegal. In early 2011, the RNC was apparently planning to do it again.

That's according to the Direct Marketing Association, which said in a recent ethics report obtained by TPM that the RNC, under its current chairman, was "likely" to mail out an "identical mail piece" to the one that got them into trouble. The RNC denies such a plan was ever under consideration during the new regime.

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RNC

The RNC Jumps On The 'Occupy Wall Street Is Anti-Semitic' Bandwagon

Jillian Rayfield | October 19, 2011, 11:00AM

The Republican National Committee is joining in with the right-wing bloggers who have sought to paint the Occupy Wall Street protesters as an anti-Semitic mob, condemning Democrats who it says "have spent the last week championing the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement, yet in the midst of protestors' extreme anti-Semitic, anti-Israel comments, they've been silent."

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Anonymous

Pepper Spraying Cop Was Named In Civil Rights Complaints For 2004 Anti-Bush Protests

Jillian Rayfield | September 27, 2011, 1:41PM

Anthony Bologna, the NYPD officer who maced a protester at the Occupy Wall Street rally, was named in several civil rights lawsuits related to arrests made at the 2004 Republican National Convention.

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RNC

RNC Goes After Obama For Using White House In Campaign Ad Like Everybody Else

Ryan J. Reilly | July 18, 2011, 6:11PM

Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican National Committee

Presidents have engaged in the perhaps unseemly but legal practice of using the White House as a backdrop for their campaign ads pretty much since campaign ads became a thing. But now the head of the RNC is calling President Barack Obama's decision to do the same thing an "apparent crime."

"As Chairman of the Republican National Committee, I have the responsibility to hold the President accountable for his reckless spending, for the unsustainable growth of government and the crushing debt he is leaving for future generations of Americans, and now, sadly, for his apparent criminal behavior," RNC Chair Reince Priebus wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.

"I never expected I would be in this regrettable position, but the President's conduct and the White House staff's stonewalling leave me no choice," Priebus wrote.

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Republican National Committee

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

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

Reince Priebus

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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Michael Steele

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

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

RNC Chair Michael Steele

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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Republican National Lawyers Association

Lawyers Group With Close Ties To RNC Features Parade Of Vote Fraud Fearmongers

Rachel Slajda | October 15, 2010, 6:43PM

Civil Rights Commission member Ashley Taylor

The list of speakers who have appeared at seminars of the Republican National Lawyers Association, a group with close ties to the RNC that has been "very dominant" in ginning up voter fraud fears in the past several elections, reads like a who's who of voter fraud fearmongers.

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RNC

Outside Groups Have A Leg Up On RNC In 'Ballot Security' Efforts

Ryan J. Reilly | October 15, 2010, 5:31PM

GOP Chairman Michael Steele at the Republican National Lawyers Association

Tea Party groups, the Republican National Lawyers Association, conservative organizations and websites like Pajamas Media have at least one major advantage over the Republican National Committee when it comes to anti-voter fraud programs. Unlike the RNC, such groups aren't subject to a consent decree that requires the RNC to inform both the Democratic National Committee and a federal judge when they are operating "ballot security" programs.

First reached nearly three decades ago, a federal judge in New Jersey rejected a request by the RNC to vacate the consent decree last December. Instead, he modified the decree by setting up an eight year sunset clause -- which would no longer be valid if the DNC can prove a violation before the decree expired -- and said that only the DNC could bring violations to the court's attention.

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