La decisión de Michael Steele de presentarse a un nuevo mandato el próximo mes de enero ha sido mal acogida por casi todos los estratos del GOP. Los más molestos son los grandes donantes que amenazan con seguir donando su dinero a organizaciones paralelas en lugar de al RNC, si Steele gana un segundo mandato.
(...) “If Mr. Steele were to prevail, it will further alienate the party’s major financial supporters and most active fundraisers,” said Wayne Berman, a top Washington lobbyist and bundler who served as the McCain presidential campaign’s finance chairman in 2008. “His arrogant style, cult of personality and embarrassing mismanagement are sources of great discontent with the major fundraisers of the party.”
Should Steele return as chairman, Berman added, it will spur many donors to do what they did in 2010 and “support the many successful third-party groups.”
(...) Al Hoffman, a longtime GOP contributor in Florida who did two separate stints as RNC finance chairman in President Bush’s first term, was just as withering: “The donor community has virtually no faith or confidence in Michael Steele’s to be the keeper of the keys.”
“The long and short of it is I have a hard time finding any major donor who would trust him to straighten out the RNC and run a principled and ethical fundraising operation,” said the Floridian. “Whose going to give to him as long as he’s at the helm? Not me. My own slogan is now, Anybody But Steele.”
(...) Mel Sembler, another Floridian who also once served as the RNC’s Finance Chairman, expressed worry that if Steele continued atop the party it would make it more difficult for donors in the state to raise the $50 million needed for the GOP’s 2012 convention in Tampa.
“They’re spending money like drunken sailors up there,” Sembler said of the RNC, alluding to news accounts of how much the party was already paying to plan the convention. “And because of that major donors are concerned about how [the local organizers] will spend their money.”
(...) Asked about Steele’s decision to run, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) allowed that it’s “his prerogative,” before adding that “there are other people already in the race.”
Pressed on whether Steele would be a good leader heading into the 2012 presidential campaign, Thune, a potential White House contender, voiced what is on the mind of many in the GOP.
“There’s a concern about him stepping up the pace on fundraising,” he said. “That’s a valid one, obviously. I think he’ll have to address that or at least come up with a way of addressing that in his argument to continue in the job.”
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) went a step further, saying he was "looking for alternatives.”
"I appreciate his service, but 2012 is real important,” DeMint said of Steele.
A handful of the nation’s GOP governors, including Mississippi Gov. and former RNC Chairman Haley Barbour, have already indicated a desire for change atop the party. (...)
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