Via RedState:
A little over a year ago, a RedState exclusive investigation into spending at the Republican National Committee revealed that millions of donor dollars were spent on things like floral arrangements, private jets, limousines, tickets to Broadway shows, high-end retail stores, and more.
As I wrote then, frugality has long been a conservative principle, even at the RNC.
Back in 2010, RNC Chair Michael Steele was heavily criticized and eventually lost his position because donors were angry about what they believed was luxurious spending on private jets, floral arrangements, chauffeur services, and member meetings in expensive tropical locales. Donors were used to frugality from the RNC under the George W. Bush administration, when “Karl Rove would bitch if there were flowers on the tables” and staff holiday parties were catered by Chick-fil-A.
In light of reports that the RNC had a cash shortage heading into a critical election year (which was described as a “revenue problem”) and that the RNC executive board voted to authorize a $10 million line of credit in its 2024 budget, RedState analyzed expenditures recorded by the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) since the December 2022 story to see where the money is going.
In addition, several categories of RNC spending were compared to spending by the Democratic National Committee during the same time frame. The chart below shows total spending and spending in these categories by the RNC and the DNC between October 20, 2022 and November 30, 2023.
As reflected above, the RNC spends significantly more than the DNC in the categories of office supplies, management consulting, floral arrangements, media booking consultants, and limousines. The DNC spends significantly more than the RNC in the categories of voter file maintenance, GOTV texting, and transfers to state parties. (NOTE: Transfers to the NRCC and NRSC are included in the $13,800,200 total, and transfers to the DCCC are include in the DNC’s total.) The DNC spent more than the RNC did overall. Still, the differences in the categories just mentioned are significant even if looking at them on a percentage-of-total-spending basis, and the categories the DNC invested in are the categories that matter when it comes to winning elections.