|
NRCC chairman: Probe will not affect GOP fundraising |
|
By Jackie Kucinich
|
|
Posted: 02/07/08 12:03 PM [ET] |
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) on Thursday sought to assure concerned GOP members that a federal probe of financial irregularities at the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) will not adversely affect fundraising in the long term.
“These are not problems that will keep us from competing in the fall,” the NRCC chairman told his colleagues during a closed-door meeting of the House Republican Conference, according to sources in the room.
Without sharing details of the probe, Reps. Cole, Mike Conaway (R-Texas) and John Kline (R-Minn.) explained the audit process that the committee was going through, but one Republican source said it was unclear whether NRCC funds are missing. Conaway, a former CPA, serves as chairman of the NRCC audit committee. Kline serves as NRCC management chairman.
Asked about the probe Thursday, Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters, “I think that Tom Cole and the auditing committee at NRCC will get to the bottom of it.”
In a statement issued late last week, Cole said an unnamed former NRCC employee who served as an outside vendor had been terminated and that the investigation was continuing. The statement noted that federal authorities had been contacted.
|
