Turmoil In The Republican Party Over Money, Ideology

After Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's landslide reelection last year, the California Republican Party is left fighting over millions of dollars of debt.

As Republicans prepare for their weekend convention, the dispute has descended into "accusatory and obnoxious" exchanges over politics, finances and the direction of the party, according to e-mails obtained by Political Muscle.

Schwarzenegger's campaign is planning two spring fundraisers to get the GOP solvent again. The party is about $4.6 million in debt. But with the governor's own campaign coffers empty, Schwarzenegger has been reduced to offering $2,000 framed posters by Hiro Yamagata (pictured) to "help the governor's campaign debt." (He finished the year nearly $2.4 million under water, compared to $174,000 in red ink for Phil Angelides.)

The dispute represents a larger fight within the party over ideology and direction. Some conservative Republicans have grumbled loudly about last year's $20 million get-out-the-vote campaign, which left only Schwarzenegger and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner as the GOP winners. Both are considered moderates, while conservative candidates such as Sen. Tom McClintock lost.

Many see Schwarzenegger as a political heretic leading the party down a dangerous path that ignores conservatism in favor of compromise with liberals.

All of this has left Schwarzenegger's advisors a little astonished at the conservative wing of the California Republican Party and their "clueless" expectations, as one put it. Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for the governor, told a forum in Berkeley recently that it was "nothing short of a miracle" that McClintock ended up only 4.1 percentage points behind Democrat John Garamendi in the lieutenant governor's race, given that McClintock is a conservative in a Democratic state running in a Democratic year.

Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 8 percentage points in California. "These people are clueless about where they live," another top Schwarzenegger aide said.

Now, McClintock has formed a new political committee, Citizens for the California Republic, designed to "amplify and broadcast conservative commentaries and proposals to an awakening constituency throughout California." He plans to unveil it this weekend. Schwarzenegger speaks to the group Friday evening--at a cost of $80 per person for Schwarzenegger supporters, according to a solicitation the governor's campaign sent out.

Specifically, there is grumbling among conservatives about efforts to register new Republican voters. Shawn Steel, the conservative former Republican Party chairman, is complaining about the GOP voter registration effort orchestrated by Schwarzenegger. Last year, the party paid workers a $13 hourly wage to register voters instead of a $3 bounty for each new party member. Steel wrote on the FlashReport:

"The program delivered a total of 125,469 GOP registrations. At a cost of only $16.74 each. But there was a problem. Sadly, the CRP verifying the 'new' registrations ... discovered an 'error' rate of 33.33 %. Ouch. All this rather breathtaking. CRP officials are still wondering if they were trapped in a bad dream.' "

Now, outgoing state party Chairman Duf Sundheim (pictured with Schwarzenegger) is trying to calm the party as it heads into the weekend convention. The fight over finances broke open in a series of nasty e-mails between Republican county chairs after a recent meeting in San Jose. Check out that fight after the jump ...

(UPDATE: Despite claims from party members in the e-mails, Sundheim says that county executive directors have been paid, along with and workers registering new GOP voters.)

(Photo: Paul Sakuma / AP)

The San Jose meeting was called "to discuss the CRP financial crisis that has left us $4.6 million in debt," wrote Doug Boyd, a former party treasurer and husband of L.A. County Republican Party Chairwoman Linda Boyd. In a Jan. 9 e-mail, Boyd lashed out at Republican Party budget committee Chairman Keen Butcher about the party's inability to pay executive directors or offer "bounty" for voter registration:

"What did you do to make this a top priority so that county executive directors had money to pay rent and car payments last month, much less buy Christmas presents?" he asked. (Boyd declined comment.)

Butcher responds by calling Doug Boyd's behavior "boorish and inappropriate" and hypocritical given that he advocated deficit spending in 2005. Butcher then points out that the L.A. County Republican party received more than $500,000 in funding from the state party, a relatively large amount that included a $5,000-a-month stipend to Linda Boyd for "fundraising" services. No other county chairs have received such a generous contract.

"You were accusatory and obnoxious in yesterday's meeting so that no one wanted to interact with you," Butcher wrote in response.

A spokesman for the party declined to discuss its finances. But Sundheim was concerned enough about the squabbling that he issued a statement to his flock late last week: "Some of the money was an investment in building the infrastructure that will be vital to our work in future elections. Governor Schwarzenegger and his team know that our efforts were critical to his successful reelection and he has pledged to ensure that this entire debt is retired as quickly as possible so we can begin preparations for the 2008 cycle on sound financial footing."