Last week was not a good one for the National Republican Congressional Committee, a group that raises money for GOP candidates for Congress.
First it announced that it might have been bilked out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Christopher J. Ward, the committee’s former treasurer, is reportedly the focus of an FBI investigation into the matter.
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Then the committee got some bad news on the political front.
It had contributed nearly $1.3 million to the congressional campaign of Jim Oberweis. The Republican was seeking to replace Dennis Hastert, the former Illinois congressman and Republican speaker of the House.
On Saturday, Oberweis lost to Democrat Bill Foster in the normally safe Republican district.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had contributed more than $1 million to Foster. Its chairman, Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, was quick to see the victory as an omen of things to come.
“It’s a stunning repudiation of President Bush, his allies and John McCain who wants to continue his legacy,” Van Hollen told The Washington Post.
A spokeswoman for the NRCC played down the Democratic victory.
“The one message coming out of 2008 so far is that what happens today is not a bellwether of what happens this fall,” Karen Hanretty said.
Whether or not the election outcome foreshadows anything, the missing money poses a real headache for the NRCC.
For one thing, it has less money on hand than it Democratic counterpart, $6.4 million to $35.5 million.
The shortfall comes at a time of need. More than dozen Republicans aren’t seeking re-election. Non-incumbent campaigns cost more.
Furthermore, it’s not just the NRCC that has a problem. Ward also served as the treasurer for political action committees formed by Republican candidates and by party organizations.
Among other groups, he kept the books for the American Liberty Political Action Committee put together by former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio. Ney is now serving time in prison on corruption charges.
A long time-employee at the NRCC, Ward was appointed treasurer in 2003, shortly after Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds, R-NY, became chairman of the group now led by Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla.
Committee leaders said last week that it appears that the NRCC’s books haven’t been independently audited since 2003. Ward may have submitted false internal audits, they suggested.
Ward was on the NRCC payroll until last August. He then became an independent contractor doing the treasurer’s job through his firm, C.J. Ward & Company, LLC. That connection to the RNCC was severed earlier this year.
Ward has resigned from Political Compliance Services. He founded the firm in 2001 with Susan Arceneaux, who was an aide to former Rep. Dick Armey, R-Texas.
According to a 2004 New York Times story, Arceneaux was a contact for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that ran ads opposed to Democratic Sen. John Kerry’s presidential bid.
Ward’s possible misdeeds at the NRCC have become campaign fodder for the potential opponents of Reynolds, who was chairman at the RNCC during the time the money may have gone missing.
“Does Tom Reynolds ever accept responsibility for his poor leadership, or does he just pass the buck?” asked a spokesman for Jonathan Powers, a Democrat seeking to run against Reynolds.
Reynolds said in a statement said he assumed that audits were being conducted at the NRCC while he was there and that the committee may have been the victim of “an elaborate scheme.”
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