Posted on 11/06/2013 3:57:35 PM PST by markomalley
In 2009, the Republican National Committee spent $9 million on then-Virginia Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bob McDonnell. But during the 2013 cycle in a battle for the same seat, the RNC reportedly only put $3 million behind Republican nominee Ken Cuccinelli’s effort.
A report by National Review’s Jonathan Strong cited a Republican source blaming former RNC chair Michael Steele for the lack of participation by the RNC in this cycle for having spent too much in 2009.
On Derek Hunter’s WBAL radio show in Baltimore on Wednesday, Steele responded to that attack and Monday morning quarterbacked yesterday’s election by pointed out some lessons he thought could be learned from the results.
He drew a contrast between the Cuccinelli campaign and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s re-election campaign, pointing out Christie was willing to go into uncomfortable situation to build relationships.
“Chris Christie implemented it brilliantly over his four years as governor, and you see that payoff when you commit yourself, create that access, leverage those opportunities and make the level of investment in people,” Steele said. “And I think when you look at the two campaigns, there were just fits and starts in Virginia with respect to that. And that’s part of the infrastructure to Cuccinelli’s campaign. But it was also the lack of national support rallying behind his effort. That really I think stymied them.”
Hunter noted the discrepancy in spending by the RNC in the 2009 and 2013 Virginia gubernatorial elections. Steele argued that what he did worked in 2009 despite criticisms from within RNC.
“And can you believe these idiots are blaming me for the loss last night because I spent $9 million to get Bob elected in 2009?” Steele replied. “They said, ‘Well, he was never trailing in the polls anyway. It was a frivolous use of money.’ Well, tell that to the McDonnell campaign that was putting together a statewide effort that began not in September, but Bob and his campaign sat down with the RNC back in April of 2009 and talked about how we would open up offices around the state. We would start the branding early. We would do the grassroots development because there was no other race besides New Jersey.”
Steele went on to explain his partnership at the time with the Republican Governors Association and that at the time they invested in New Jersey while he focused his efforts in Virginia. But it appears to be different this time around.
“I don’t know what’s happened to that, but I’ll be damned if these people are going to blame me for last night because of their incompetence and inability to actually leverage an opportunity to win in a state that we have won in before,” Steele said.
Steele added that the current RNC under chairman Reince Priebus has cash on hand and no debt, but building up a war chest isn’t the purpose of a the RNC. It is to win elections.
“The DNC is sitting in debt right now, but guess what?” he said. “They held the presidency, picked up seats in the Senate, and now they’re going for the House. Those kinds of commitments — that word more than anything else really matters in campaigns like the ones that we saw in both New Jersey and Virginia. And it really questions for me what the level of commitment is going to be going into 2014, and I think if I’m a candidate running in a state like Maryland, I’m not going to be relying on too much from the RNC or national leaders because they’re going to look at my state and they’re going to write it off, which is something we did not do in 2009.”
I think the republicans are short on cash because they only support rinos. They are digging their own grave.
Let 'em. I plan to dance on it.
Commitments? Or how much of their wins are attributable to the Obama admistration not approving almost all the Tea Party applications for political activism?
A lot I'd say.
The homo loving rino “Steal” is playing both sides. Trying to get support from the cons for criticizing national GOP for not supporting the GOP nominee in VA more, and praising the rino Christie.
These morons think we have the same attention span they do. They act like a Leftist for years on end and then make a statement like they’re one of us, LOL. Seriously?
Steele had his chance. Failing do do anything productive with it, he should gracefully shut up and leave us in peace.
For the lack of good Conservatives in key locations, the party is done!
Let’s see if I understand this correctly! Michael Steele, who works for one of THE most libtard rich environments on the face of planet Earth, is offering up criticism to the RNC, that he almost single-handedly wrecked when he was it’s head? Does that pretty well sum things up?
Now would be a good time for Cruz to lay down the law for the GOP races in 2014. Let’s widen that fracture and spin off the Rino’s and stealth Liberals wing of the GOP party and solidify it with tea party conservatives.
2014 Congressional and Senatorial Elections are going to be pretty nasty. Expect everything *AND* get somebody to lead the RNC.
This VA race was presented to us as a candidate with a 12% deficit just 3 weeks prior to the race. How did it end up this close (I’ve been nibbling a bit of Crow myself, having believed this enough to predict and 8% loss).
Instead of a tombstone over it, we’ll erect an outhouse.
The RNC and Karl Rove did the same thing in Nevada, and not financing her campaign is what put Harry Reid back in office!
My previous post, I left out Sharon Angle’s name.
Thanks markomalley.
Mark Levin, RNC Chair [Reince Priebus] Brawl Over GOP Party’s Support (or Failure to Support) Cuccinelli
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3088215/posts
"Steele added that the current RNC under chairman Reince Priebus has cash on hand and no debt, but building up a war chest isn’t the purpose of a the RNC. It is to win elections."
Quite honestly, I have to agree with Michael Steele here. One of the big knocks against Steele was that the GOP was in debt was he was the chairman- but he's right, the Dems are in debt now (as they were in 2012)... but they're winning key elections. The GOP-e wanted Preibus because he was a better fundraiser- thus, now the GOP has all this cash (that it doesn't use in key elections... ) to be skimmed away by the charlatans and consultants in the GOP-e.
I know Steele's not a Conservative on social issues, etc., but to his credit, he didn't appear to try to impose his views on Tea Party candidates running for races in 2010- he let them be themselves, and they won. The Tea Party was allowed to flourish under his watch- under Preibus so far, all there is is back-stabbing and losses in important elections...
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