State GOP has Next to Nothing in Federal Campaign Account
Friday, January 06, 2012
Nearly a dozen incidents of “stupid bookkeeping” has cost the state GOP more than half of its reported campaign funds —including almost all of the money in its federal account— Party Chairman Mark Zaccaria confirmed Thursday at a special meeting of the State Central Committee.
The federal account now shows a balance of just $517.43, down from the $44,954.64 the Party reported last June. The state campaign account has $31,368.67, nearly $11,000 less than Party had at the end of September.
Zaccaria said about 11 errors were identified in reports filed over the course of the last decade, but were first spotted by acting Chairman Steve Frias last month. He said most of the mistakes had to do with “double-reporting” or simply not counting some expenditure and that there was no illegal use of funds.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“We conducted a complete audit and we fixed the problem,” Zaccaria said.
A $45,000 Problem
Zacccaria said the Party called for an internal review, but refused to reveal the GOP member that conducted the audit. He said he doesn’t expect the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to fine the party and that he wasn’t sure whether state Board of Elections would issue a penalty.
Thursday’s revelations confirmed a story first reported by GoLocalProv earlier this week, which explained that widespread financial irregularities taking place under the watch of several chairmen were causing headaches for the Party. Zaccarria called the issue a “non-story” on Tuesday, but he never acknowledged that the majority of money the Party was claiming to have on its books was going to be erased just two days later.
Zaccaria said the audit helped identify that any mistakes made were “human errors” in the reporting of some expenditures and contributions dating back on the federal side to 2002. He said mistakes made in state reports were “much more recent.”
“It was a $45,000 problem,” Zaccaria said. “By counting the same donation twice and by failing to count expenditure, what were doing was saying ‘oh look we have more money than we actually had’ and so there was a discrepancy between our filing numbers and our bank accounts.”
Gio Cicione, who is currently managing Congressional candidate Brendan Doherty's campaign, and Patricia Morgran, now a State Representative, served as Chairmen of the state GOP for the bulk of the last decade. On Tuesday, Cicione said he had nothing to do with any errors that may have been made.
“No – it had to do with the Treasurer’s office – nothing I was really involved in,” he wrote in an e-mail to GoLocalProv.
“It’s Embarrassing”
The severe shortage in cash on hand is yet another damaging sign for the state GOP heading into an election season where it hopes to double the amount of seats it occupies in the General Assembly. By comparison, the Democratic Party had $56,547.06 in its state account as of September and $20,761 in its federal account as of the end of November. As of Thursday evening, the Federal Election Commission website was still reporting that the Republican Party had more cash in its account than the Democrats.
Zaccaria said Thursday night that the goal of the GOP is to increases the number of seats it has in the General Assembly from 18 to 45, but acknowledged that the funding problems were a distraction.
“It’s embarrassing [and] distracts us from our main job which is to sponsor and support winning political campaign,” he said.
Federal Candidates Won’t Get Money
When asked what the lack of funds in the federal account would mean for candidates challenging Senator Sheldon Whitehouse or Congressmen David Ciciiline and James Langevin this November, Zaccaria, a former two-time Congressional candidate himself, said the candidates will likely not receive much financial support from the GOP.
“It says to [Senate candidate] Barry Hinckley he’s not going to get much of a contribution from the RIGOP,” Zaccaria said. “And in my two runs for Congress, I believe I can give you exactly to the penny the total amount of support I got from the state Party. It was zero.”
Hinckley did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Prior to the meeting, Michael G. Riley, who is challenging Langevin, issued a statement of support for Zaccaria.
“I believe in transparency and I believe Mark will work towards that goal,” he said.
“You Get Used to It”
Zaccaria meanwhile maintains that the Party worked swiftly and diligently to correct its mistakes and while he didn’t completely rule out the possibility that fines could levied, he said believes the state GOP and can move forward.
“We’ve had next to nothing in our campaign accounts for years, you get used to it,” he said.
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