Gov. Rick Perry(TX) & Gov. Bob Mcdonnell(VA) - (Lee Celano,Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
New Hampshire Republican Party Chairman Jack Kimball is alleging that several national republicans including freshman Senator Kelly Ayotte, Reps. Charlie Bass and Frank Guinta, and the Republican Governors Association offered $100,000 in donations to the state GOP to step down from his position.
The Boston Globe has more:
The conservative blog GraniteGrok first reported that the RGA agreed to donate $100,000 to the New Hampshire Republican Party to help with state races, if Kimball resigns. The blog said the Republican members of the federal delegation – US Representatives Charlie Bass and Frank Guinta, and US Senator Kelly Ayotte – would give additional money to the state party.
“The contents in that piece are accurate,” Kimball told the Globe today in an interview, after pointing the blog post out to a reporter. “It’s very sad.”
Mike Schrimpf, spokesman for association, responded in an email, “The RGA knows the value of strong state parties and believes it is important for the New Hampshire GOP to be running at full strength in 2012. Recent news reports about the RGA’s commitment to New Hampshire are wrong.”
Representatives of Bass, Guinta and Ayotte did not return calls.
GraniteGrok, a conservative blog, first reported the story as a Republican establishment operation vs. the recently elected tea party-backed chairman. Since taking office in January, Kimball has come under intense criticism in the state for losing a couple of key special elections and overseeing the depletion of the state party's coffers. Politico, which called the establishment's offer a "bribe," is reporting that Kimball remains defiant. The Manchester Union Leader is reporting that top tea party officials are calling the matter an "organized conspiracy" and threatening electoral retribution. When confronted with the contents of the story on GraniteGrok, Kimball responded:
NH GOP Chairman Jack Kimball (Jim Cole/AP)
“The contents in that piece are accurate,” Kimball told the Globe today in an interview, after pointing the blog post out to a reporter. “It’s very sad.”
According to GraniteGrok, top elected officials from New Hampshire pushed Kimball in the following way:
It seems that Speaker Bill O'Brien and Jennifer Horn visited Jack at his office in Portsmouth on Friday. Their purpose? Verbiage from Bill: "Peter Bragdon, the NH National delegation, and the Republican Governors Association have asked me to ask you to step down".
...
A Hundred Thousand Dollars from the RGA. And more from our Republican members of the State Delegation: Kelly Ayotte, Charlie Bass, and Frank Guinta. To the NH GOP. To be used to help fund State level races in the House and Senate, according to my sources.
So here is the perfect example of complaining that Jack can't raise money even as they propose to to withhold the money.
But only if Jack resigns. He resigns, a 6 figure deal. He fights it - zippo.
This happened on the watch of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, who took over the RGA from presidential candidate Gov. Rick Perry on the Monday before the meeting with Kimball was allegedly held. It was Perry who appointed the current Executive Director of the RGA. Phil Cox is the former campaign manager of Gov. McDonnell's successful 2009 race for governor.
This entire episode raises questions for Governor McDonnell and Governor Perry. Did either of them know about and/or authorize the Republican Governors Association to propose this deal to Kimball? If so, why are they and the RGA acting to undermine the tea party in the state considering that the important New Hampshire presidential primary is just around the corner?
However the matter is ultimately accounted, it is clear that there appears to be a large division between the New Hampshire Republican establishment and the tea party grassroots. The question for Rick Perry, and indeed all the Republican presidential candidates, is whose side are they on?