RNC aide quits, rips Steele's leadership

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Gentry Collins resigned as the Republican National Committee political director Tuesday, blasting RNC Chairman Michael Steele's leadership in the process.

In a letter to Steele and the RNC executive committee, Collins charged RNC leadership led to disorganization in the party and claimed the RNC's financial shortcomings limited Election Day successes, Politico reported.

He also revealed the party is deeply in debt entering the 2010 presidential election cycle, read the four-page letter obtained by Politico.

"In the previous two non-presidential cycles, the RNC carried over $4.8 million and $3.1 million respectively in cash reserve balances into the presidential cycles," Collins wrote. "In stark contrast, we enter the 2012 presidential cycle with (100 percent) of the RNC's $15 million in lines of credit tapped out, and unpaid bills likely to add millions to that debt."

Describing the RNC's 2010 money woes, Collins said the committee couldn't afford to run an independent-expenditure ad campaign for their candidates, didn't fund a voter turnout operation for Senate and gubernatorial races and left unfunded its 72-hour turnout program, among other things.

Steele hasn't tipped his hand about whether he'll seek another term as RNC chairman.

Referring to Steele's explanation about the RNC's financial difficulties this year, Collins wrote the party's "low cash-on-hand figures are not simply the result of early spending or transfers to state parties," Politico reported.

"While the RNC spent $11 million more in 2009 than in 2005 to secure important off-year victories in New Jersey, Virginia and Pennsylvania, that accounts for only one-quarter of the $43.6 million shortfall from the last non-presidential cycle," Collins said. "And while we did make large in-kind contributions of phones and equipment to state parties, more than (85 percent) of that equipment was left over from 2008 -- not acquired in the 2010 cycle."

Collins said a study indicated Republicans could have picked up hotly contested Senate seats in Colorado and Washington if the GOP had better field operations and attributed narrow gubernatorial losses in some states to the same lack of funding. He also said he counted 21 House seats that "could have been competitive if not for lack of funds."

Collins said the party must regain its financial footing going into the 2012 election cycle to help bankroll a presidential campaign and pay for a national convention, costs associated with redistricting, and all the state and federal races.