Will "dine-and-dash" lead to new Montco GOP Leadership?

In yesterday's post regarding the Montco GOP's money men, I excerpted at length a rather eye-opening article by the Inky's Jeremy Roebuck. And even then, I skipped an entire section of the article, because that part of the story addresses an entirely separate issue, even if both are tied to funding. Mr. Roebuck, again:

The fact that a local political party finds itself in debt is not particularly unusual, strategists on both sides of the aisle say. County-level Republican and Democratic committees across the state routinely wrack up thousands in financial obligations during election season.

What makes the Montgomery County Republican Committee's situation unusual is that its debts have been mounting since early 2009. And while $90,000 may not sound like much to a group that routinely brings in more than $600,000 in contributions each year, the fact that those liabilities have sat on the books for so long is a troubling sign, said veteran Republican strategist Aaron Cohen, who has worked on campaigns within Montgomery County.

And it has started to affect how the party operates. For years under previous chairmen, the party relied on the same caterers, the same event halls, the same print shops for many of its functions and operations. Over the last three years - since Kerns was first elected chairman by the party's committee members - the organization has bounced from one vendor to another.

After performing the equivalent of a dine-and-dash on many of the businesses that have been loyal to the organization for years, the party can't go back.

Gus Mandracchia - owner of the East Norriton-based Presidential Catering - got stuck holding a $3,000 bill in 2008 after years of putting food on the table at party functions. Since then, he's seen his regular business from the committee dry up.

"I would have been the first to say just pay me what you can, but to not pay at all and then just go somewhere else - that's wrong," he said.

Even the party's own candidates are feeling the hurt. Pete Kohut, a longtime Bridgeport councilman who made an unsuccessful run for the state House this year, said the party promised to cover $2,000 for his campaign mailings. He's still waiting for a check.

And as other bills have piled up, lawyers have gotten involved, lawsuits have been threatened and the party's small staff has voluntarily deferred drawing a paycheck.

"I just don't know how you run an operation like that," Kohut said. "You certainly don't like to take advantage of those who are working on behalf of your party."

So how did the local Republican committee in the heart of Pennsylvania's political fund-raising capital get to this point? Local conservatives have continued to give in big numbers to GOP candidates and statewide causes.

The economic downturn has certainly taken its toll on fund-raising efforts in Montgomery County, Kerns said. But he places most of the blame on the epic public feud played out during the past three years between the two Republicans on Montgomery County's Board of Commissioners - Castor and his estranged colleague, James R. Matthews.

Ok, I call B.S.

When Kerns first took over the leadership of the Montco GOP, he took the bold and unusual step of separating Jim Matthews from the Party in a very public and unmistakable manner. I think it's pretty safe to say that no one in Montgomery County has thought that Jim Matthews has had Party backing ever since those heady days of December 2007, when the infamous power sharing deal with the unmistakeably liberal Joe Hoeffel was struck and Matthews was censured by the Party. Kerns made the exact right call at the exact right time.

But to now blame Jim Matthews for the Montco GOP walking out on bills and leaving vendors and caterers hanging with never a backward glance? I find that difficult to swallow. Especially since many of these vendors would have been happy to work with the Party to work out payment arrangements. Kerns continues:

"People like to give money in a situation where they see stability - where they're going to believe that you're the winning candidate," Kerns said. "When you have a situation where you have infighting between two Republican commissioners that sure doesn't lead to stability."

Stability is the problem? Hey, as long as we know the Party is not going to shoehorn some handpicked political patronage crony onto the ballot to ride very large coat-tails of the GOP's strongest candidate (again), that's all the stability we are looking for. That situation, you may recall, arose directly from the outsized influence of one particularly large Montco GOP donor.

To be absolutely clear: This is not to say that Vahan Gureghian looks for the same qualities in a candidate as Bob Asher, and it's certainly not to say that Jenny Brown is another Jim Matthews, however, when Bob Kerns pooh-poohs concerns about one donor having too much influence in the party....

"If you took Mr. Gureghian's money out, we'd still survive, we'd still operate and we'd still run the party effectively," he said. "I don't have to rely on one man to make this party run."

It IS to say that perhaps THIS, and not the infighting on the County Board of Commissioners, is the situation that is causing the instability, since apparently, even that one large donor is not large enough to pay the GOP's bills, some of which are aged some two years. Mr. Kerns' cavalier attitude about taking Mr. Gureghian's money out of the equation would carry a little more weight if Gus Mandracchia and Pete Kohut got paid.

There is plenty of political angst to lay at the feet of Jim Matthews, however, it's unfair of Mr. Kerns to try to schlupp the Party's fiscal woes off on him too.

Because, as you can see, Jim Matthews (or, perhaps more properly, the Friends of Jim Matthews) at least always pays the tab.