When Michael S. Steele took over as chairman of the Republican National Committee earlier this year, he brought along longtime personal assistant Belinda Cook and gave her a salary nearly three times what her predecessor made.
Mrs. Cook’s son, Lee, also landed an RNC job.
Mr. Steele hired another family friend, Angela Sailor, to be the party’s outreach director at a salary of $180,000, more than double her predecessor’s compensation, though new responsibilities have been added to the job, according to a high-ranking RNC official and Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.
Mr. Steele’s early record and personnel decisions figure to be hot topics at a special meeting of Republican state party chairmen Tuesday and Wednesday at National Harbor in Washington’s Maryland suburbs. His hiring of friends and the salaries he is paying them already helped to instigate a struggle over who controls the party’s purse strings, one that forced the new party chairman to relinquish some control to elected RNC members.
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The 2012 Republican Convention in Tampa, Fla. won’t get underway for another 636 days. But that hasn’t stopped the Republican National Committee from spending over $636,800 on the convention more than a year and a half before it starts.
That’s 18 times the amount spent that was spent in a comparable time frame four years ago, the Washington Post reported, causing more than a few raised eyebrows within the party.
Critics of RNC Chairman Michael Steele have also focused on a lucrative job given to his longtime aide, Belinda Cook, convention-related gigs given to her family and friends and a variety of large expenses footed by the RNC.
The Washington Times first reported on Cook’s salary — which is nearly three times what her predecessor made — earlier this month. Over two years ahead of the 2012 convention in Tampa, Steele signed a contract making Cook a “convention liaison” and paying her $15,000 per month.
FEC records show that Cook was also paid $25,000 for “Political Strategy Consulting” back in July. Records reflect thousands of dollars in additional reimbursements made to Cook for travel, food and beverages.
The Daily Caller reported that Cook’s niece (Pamela Kesner), her son (Lee Cook), her son’s college friend (Erik Rohrmann) her former assistant (Grace Cushing) are all on the RNC payroll. Cook’s sister, Betina Barcus, has been paid over $25,000 for hotel management consulting, according to Federal Elections Commission records.
The RNC is also renting for Cook a waterfront mansion that measures 3,200 square feet and comes with private pool and dock, the Daily Caller reported. All in all, “The extended Cook cabal took home a total of $139,923 in the three month reporting period from July 1 to Sept. 30,” the Daily Caller wrote.