Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 5, 1990 TAG: 9005070349
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Indeed, the leak strikes us as a reflection in miniature of the Virginia GOP's central problem during the past decade: its pronounced tendency to shoot itself in the foot.
To Democrats, there may be delicious irony in all this.
It was the Republicans who, during the gubernatorial campaign this past fall, halfheartedly raised the issue of the state's impending budget squeeze and blamed it on Democratic mismanagement.
It was the Republicans who, during this past winter's General Assembly, wholeheartedly said we told you so.
Now, it turns out, the Republicans can't even keep their own financial house in order.
To Virginians in general, the irony isn't so appetizing.
For one thing, the Republicans were right this past fall about the impending crunch in the state's finances, and they may well be right today in predicting more to come. Anyway, the state's problems won't go away just because the GOP's own books are in disarray.
For another, there's little comfort to take in the report's allegation of bookkeeping so sloppy (to adopt a kind and gentle interpretation) that as much as $1 million in 1989 contributions and expenditures may simply have gone unrecorded.
Such revelations raise serious questions that go beyond internal party matters.
Though the party treasury is separate from the campaign funds of individual candidates, the party serves as a conduit for campaign financing. Via disclosure laws, we know where candidates' money comes from, and some of it frequently is from the party. But where does the party's money come from?
Do party leaders themselves know?
To Republican leaders, there's a different and bitter irony: They have been hoist by the petard of their own effort to clean up the mess.
The reason there was a report that could be leaked is that there was an audit. And the reason there was an audit is that party leaders commissioned it after learning $241,000 was owed in federal taxes and interest.
But before you shed too many tears There's more than a hint of election-losing arrogance in the assumption that the party's internal finances aren't the public's business. True, the Republican Party of Virginia is not a governmental agency. But it is, presumably, a broad-based political organization. . . . in sympathy, consider the response of party leaders.
Party Chairman Don Huffman and Executive Director Joe Elton, it is said, hold those posts for reasons other than financial expertise. But if so, isn't it the obligation of Huffman, Elton or the Central Committee to make sure a good bean-counter is on board?
The audit, party leaders claim, contains incorrect information. But wasn't the audit conducted by auditors of the party's own choosing?
Whoever mailed copies of the audit to the news media, it is argued, didn't have the interests of the party at heart. But must not the leaker be enough of a Republican insider to have had access to the document?
Besides, there's more than a hint of election-losing arrogance in the assumption that the party's internal finances aren't the public's business.
True, the Republican Party of Virginia is not a governmental agency. But it is, presumably, a broad-based political organization whose purpose is to win the privilege of governing the state.
Or is the idea to turn the Virginia GOP back into a private club, as it was in the days when its meetings could be held in a phone booth?
by CNB