Archive for April, 2010

NRCC Sends Crew to Collect Dues

Published
by
jackiefk81
on April 21, 2010
in Roll Call
. 0 Comments

By Jackie Kucinich
Roll Call Staff

House Republicans are so determined to have Members fulfill their fundraising quotas this year that they have enlisted two of their own to act as the NRCC’s repo team.

With the blessing of National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (Texas), Reps. Kevin Brady (Texas) and Tom Cole (Okla.) have assembled a 14-member whip team whose only mission is to collect dues from Members who have failed to meet their fundraising goals.

“It’s a brutal exercise in peer pressure,” said Cole, a former NRCC chairman. “This is a critical point for us.”

Cole said the stakes are too high to let any outstanding debts slide since, for the first time in several years, Republicans have great opportunities to pick up a host of House seats.

But with the wider field comes the greater need for cash, and there, Cole said, the GOP still has a problem. Continue reading ‘NRCC Sends Crew to Collect Dues’

GOP: New Twist on ‘Contract’

Published
by
jackiefk81
on April 15, 2010
in Roll Call
. 0 Comments

By Jackie Kucinich
Roll Call Staff

House Republicans are launching a new effort to craft an election-year mission statement that appears to be part “Contract With America” and part “American Idol.”

GOP Members said the ideas that will eventually become the basis for their initiative — the working title is the “Commitment to America” — will come largely from outside Washington and largely online, but they pledged that reforming the legislative process would be a top priority.

“Seven, eight, nine months ago if you talked process you came off like a whiner,” Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) said. “People now understand that bad process yields bad legislation and so my expectation is that process will be part of this.” Continue reading ‘GOP: New Twist on ‘Contract’’