FEC Clears Palin, RNC on Campaign Clothes
Remember the media fueled brouhaha about Sarah Palin’s campaign wardrobe? Remember how the media and lefty bloggers gleefully reported that those purchases must have somehow been illegal?
Umm, well they weren’t… The Federal Elections Commission has dismissed a complaint by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) saying the purchases were legal:
The Republican National Committee’s (RNC) campaign clothing spending spree for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was legal, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has ruled.
The FEC dismissed a complaint by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) against Palin and the RNC, ruling that the approximately $150,000 spent on clothing for the governor and her family was permitted as coordinated party expenditures.
A Palin spokeswoman said the governor and her supporters are “pleased” to learn that the purchases were in compliance with the law.
“The clothes in this campaign were treated just like the many stages upon which the governor stood and the hundreds of lights used to illuminate them; all were used during the campaign and returned upon its conclusion,” Palin spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton said in a statement.
Stapleton also railed against the media’s “obsessive” fixation on Palin’s clothes.
“It is difficult to reconcile the obsessive reference to clothing on the campaign trail with any legitimate political issue and that leaves the unsettling conclusion that Governor Palin is the single national political figure who is critiqued on policy, family and clothing,” she said. “When people start asking details about the personal effects of other candidates, then maybe the double standard will be eliminated.”
The FEC’s ruling shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone with more than two working brain cells and modicum of commonsense… The RNC’s clothing purchases may have been ill-advised and badly handled but they weren’t illegal.
Related
Breaking: Steele Named New RNC Chairman
Still looking for details but…
Former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele has been elected Chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Update: Steele defeated South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson 91-77 in the sixth round of voting to become RNC chairman.
My immediate reaction is this a good day for the Republican party, Steele is terrific communicator and should be an effective advocate for the party’s principles and policy ideas on radio and television .
Update II (5:20 p.m.): Reuters has the details:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Republican Party picked its first black chairman on Friday as it elected former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele to rebuild the party after a string of devastating defeats.
Steele, 50, is regarded within the party as a skilled speaker who can help bring the Republican message to black Americans, Hispanics, suburbanites and other fast-growing groups that have shunned the party in recent years.
Steele has argued that as a high-profile Republican in a heavily Democratic state he knows how to talk to voters outside of the party’s Southern stronghold.
“We’re going to win again in the Northeast,” he told the cheering crowd. “We’re going to continue to win in the South. We’re going to win with a new storm in the Midwest. And when we get to the West, we’re going to lock it down and win there, too.”
As Republican National Committee chairman, Steele will have to find a way to counter Democrat Barack Obama, who was sworn in as the country’s first black president 11 days ago. Read the rest…
Update III (6:35 p.m.): Hot Air has the video and The Hill has background on Steele’s campaign:
Steele won after a highly coordinated yet under-the-radar campaign in which his whip team sought to convince members that the RNC needed to reach out to centrist voters with a new voice.
He hop-scotched the country for months, meeting with members in their home states. At a candidates’ forum Thursday night, Steele said he had raised about $250,000, making the race for RNC chairman likely the most expensive per capita in history.
Fred Thompson Drops RNC Bid for Return to Acting
Continuing with my catching up on things theme here…
It looks like the race for RNC Chair has tightened a little more.
I mentioned a few days ago that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s bid for appeared to be losing steam and now comes word that Fred Thompson is dropping out of the race in favor of a return to acting.
Putting aside the fact that I don’t think Thompson was ever really in the race that leaves Michael Steele as the only prominent Republican/conservative still in the running. Not everyone is crazy about him but I don’t think he would be a bad choice.
Unfortunately, I don’t think RNC members will choose Steele… I suspect they’ll choose a new chairman from within their own ranks… If media reports are right the top contenders among RNC members are:
- Robert M. “Mike” Duncan, 57, the current RNC chairman
- Katon Dawson, 52, the South Carolina GOP chairman
- Saul Anuzis, 49, the hyperactive Michigan GOP chairman
- Tina Benkiser, 46, Texas GOP chairman
- Jim Greer, 46, Florida GOP chairman
- Chuck Yob, 71, an RNC member from Michigan who is reportedly retiring from the committee.
Tina Benkiser is the only one of that group who is even mildly interesting to me… I’ll admit I don’t know much about her but at first glance she seems to have solid conservative credentials and she would bring young fresh face a Republican party that is viewed in many quarters as old and out of touch.
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