WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- The Republican National Committee says some of its service providers will not be paid this week because of a "cash flow challenge."
Boyd Rutherford, the committee's chief administrator officer, sent a memo to a member of the RNC's political team, Derek Flowers, Tuesday saying, "We will not be able to pay off the vendors this week," The Washington Post reported. "We will be slow in paying as we are having a cash flow challenge. Everyone will be slow paid until after the first of the year."
In another e-mail to the vendors, Flowers said while he originally planned to stay on the RNC until all bills were paid, he would actually step down Wednesday.
Neither Flowers nor Rutherford responded to e-mails seeking comment, but an RNC spokeswoman e-mailed, "All invoices received by the RNC are accounted for and paid in a timely manner," the Post said.
The news of the "cash flow challenge" came on the eve of the RNC's fundraising report to the Federal Election Commission, due Thursday.
The Post said in the committee's most recent FEC filing, covering fundraising and spending through Oct. 13, indicated the RNC was $4.5 million in debt with $3.8 million on hand. But, the Post report added, it is not unusual for national party committees to go into debt in the final weeks of a campaign.
Meanwhile, RNC Chairman Michael Steele has come under fire in the weeks since the election for the committee's financial performance in the 2010 cycle.
