Republican Party Suffers Spate of Money Woes

June 9, 2010 — -- When bloggers started reporting last month that the RNC's deputy finance director had expensed a $450 jewelry store purchase as a "meal," she was abruptly terminated.

The deputy, Debbie LeHardy, has never publicly addressed the matter and did not respond to email and phone messages. But a subsequent review of campaign finance reports by ABC News has revealed that LeHardy was not shy about putting in for expenses. Reports show she collected $211,172 in reimbursements in 2009 and 2010, including more than $33,000 for "office supplies" and $17,621 for what was identified only as "Tips." (Several of those tips were in excess of $700.)

The RNC has attempted to overhaul its finance department, since LeHardy's departure, given that questions about bookkeeping there just compounded unflattering reports about spending under the leadership of Chairman Michael Steele – including the infamous $2,000 bill from Voyeur, a Los Angeles club where topless dancers can be seen mimicking sex and bondage, submitted by a GOP consultant.

"We wanted to make a change in our finance department," RNC spokesman Doug Heye explained, noting that LeHardy's boss was replaced as well. "We've had to address internally problems that we've had and we have taken immediate action to fix those problems."

Even as Republicans have shown the potential for electoral gains at the polls and with donors, it has become clear the RNC is hardly alone in grappling with questions about its handling of funds. Just in the past two weeks, in fact, a series of political party committees have been confronting audits, investigations, and inquiries about their handling of donations.

In Florida last week, the chairman of the state Republican party was arrested on allegations that he pocketed $121,162 from party accounts in 2009 – allegations he has denied through a lawyer.

This week in Kansas, a Topeka newspaper quoted the state party chairman saying that when she took over operations last year, she discovered "the books were not clean." An FEC audit last month hammered that point home, finding the party co-mingled state and federal funds, took illegal corporate money, understated receipts by $111,000, understated disbursements by $176,000 and overstated year-end cash by $93,000.