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State Rep and 4th District Congressional candidate Cory Gardner dissed Republican National Committee Chairman Michel Steele at a Fort Collins 9/12 group last week. Gardner told locals asking for the controversial Chairman‘s head to call Party leaders and complain. “It’s happening” he said, meaning there was a move on to can Steele, a prodigious fundraiser but also a flash-point kind of figure, who spends extravagantly on himself and has taken heat lately for allowing RNC officials to treat young big donors to strip-club outings.
Yet Gardner has benefited enormously from the support of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which early in the race named him to its “Young Guns” program and has been key in Gardner’s impressive fundraising totals all year. Turns out Steele’s Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee set up a joint fundraising committee this month that will pool donor lists and inject mega cash into key House races, like the one between Gardner and Democrat Betsy Markey.
In a sign that the 2010 money race is heating up, the RNC and the NRCC earlier this month set up a joint fundraising committee…, NRCC spokesman Paul Lindsay confirmed.
NRCC Deputy Finance Director Jenny Sheffield Drucker describes the advantages of the committee, called Congressional Trust 2010, in an April 23 email to prospective donors obtained by TPMmuckraker: “It allows the RNC and the NRCC to fund such activities as direct contributions and coordinated expenditures for Republican House candidates in targeted races across the country.”
Drucker also notes that “[Political Action Committees] who have not maxed to the NRCC ($15,000) or RNC ($15,000), up to $30,000” can give to Congressional Trust 2010, adding that “if a PAC has already maxed to the NRCC, they can still write a check for up to $15,000 to the Congressional Trust 2010, that will be allocated to the RNC.”
Congressional Trust 2010 is holding a fundraiser — with a four pack of tickets going for as much as a $30,000 PAC contribution — at the Bullpen festival park in Washington before the Congressional Baseball Game in late June. Located across from the Washington Nationals Stadium, the Bullpen offers live music, “interactive sports games for children sponsored by Headfirst Sports” and “a beer garden for adults sponsored by Bud Light.”
That game in June– at the beer garden for adults– is likely the place Gardner will meet Chairman Steele, if he’s still chairman, to sip beer and chew down a big helping of crow.
Setting: Fort Collins
Nine-Twelver: “How can we get rid of Michael Steele?”
Candidate Gardner: “You know, I think it’s happening.”
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