Republican Party Fail

In Monday's Wall Street Journal, Fred Barnes writes on the failure this year of the Republican National Committee (RNC), headed by Michael Steele, to fund the traditional get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts. For example:

In Ohio, state chairman Kevin DeWine is desperate for RNC support. The state party was promised $1.1 million from the committee but has received only $566,900. And that, Mr. DeWine said in a letter to Mr. Steele last week, "simply pales in comparison to the investment of the previous three cycles." In 2006, the RNC gave nearly $5 million to the Ohio party. . . .

In past elections, the RNC has provided major financial help to House and Senate campaigns. In 2006, it transferred $25 million each to the NRCC and its Senate counterpart. This cycle, it sent $2 million apiece to the two committees in early 2009 but nothing since.

The reason is that Michael Steele has failed to raise the money needed:

Since Mr. Steele was elected chairman last year, the RNC has raised almost $153.7 million, roughly $90 million less than in 2006. It has aired only a few TV ads and its get-out-the-vote (GOTV) drive is considerably less ambitious than in previous midterm elections. [Emph. added]

It is not all bad. The slack is being picked up by independent groups, such as Americans for Prosperity, who likely have a better idea of what voters want than the Republican party's Washington bureaucracy ever did.