Vito Fossella's treasurer fired by NRCC, under FBI investigation

Rep. Vito Fossella's current Treasurer, Christopher Ward has been fired by the National Republican Congressional Committee and the NRCC has asked the FBI to investigate potential misdeeds on his part.

Via Elizabeth Benjamin at the Daily Politics comes the break in the original Real Politics story.

The NRCC would not comment on the investigation, though the source, who is outside the committee, characterized the fraud as severe. Details of exactly what is being investigated is unclear.

Elizabeth picked up the unreported connection that not only has Mr. Ward worked for several other Congressional and Senate campaigns in addition to the NRCC, but he is severing as Rep. Vito Fossella's re-election campaign treasurer. In fact he has served in this position at least through last Monday, January 28, 2008 when he files Fossella's 4Q FEC report. There are no public indications yet that Rep. Fossella has removed him from his paid campaign staff.

This now raises many unpleasant questions for Rep. Vito Fossella. Are his fund raising reports now under scrutiny? Has Mr. Ward commited any similar fraudulent activites on Rep. Fossella's campaign that the NRCC discovered? Is Mr. Ward still employed by Rep. Fossella?

In the end I can't say that corruption tied to Rep. Fossella should surprise anyone.

Fossella can't rely on NRCC for support

Following on Fossella's 3Q filings and his sub-par fund raising abilities comes more bad news. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), counter part to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is yet again struggling to raise any money and lagging incredibly far behind the DCCC. In fact just like Vito Fossella the NRCC is in operating debt. via the Wall Street Journal;

The Republican congressional campaign committee is in debt, while the Democrats' committee said Wednesday it has raised $28 million.

The article goes on to list many more agonies for the NRCC such as not having the money to recruit challengers to take on incumbent Democrats, having to defend many more seats to retirement than the Democrats (12 R's to 2 D's) and that independents have been breaking towards the Democrats because of opposition to the War, aka Fossella's War in Iraq.

If this doesn't spell bad news for Fossella, it most certainly does not help him sleep at night. His party must start to decide if they spend money defending incumbents, defending open seats or going after Democratic freshmen (typically the easiest incumbents to challenge). Chances are there will be no money coming from the party to help Fossella or in terms of opposition spending (going after the Democratic challenger). Fossella's fund raising is hurting and not likely to get any better as his party already is getting ready for at least another two years in the minority.

If that wasn't bad enough having Independents, the real kind not the kind Fossella claims to be, break for Democrats makes running in a district with a Democratic voter registration advantage that much harder. And then there are the conservatives within his own party frustrated at unheard of spending on this war and the chance Fossella could lose the Conservative Party ballot line.

Vito, just retire and then you can take trips to Vail all you want without worrying about those nagging ethics problems.

h/t to Brandon English over at The Stakeholder once again for drawing attention to this WSJ article.

Northeast once again target for Democratic pickups

CQPolitics.com is running a story Democrats Seek to Pick Up More Northeast House Seats in ‘08. They state that the success of the Democratic Party in the Northeast helped propel the party to majority status in the House and that the party still feels there are seats rip for the picking to continue their dominence of representing the interest of the more liberal residents.

Not content with the major gains they made in the Northeast in the 2006 campaign, Democratic strategists believe they can make further inroads in the region in next year’s House contests.

snip

Democratic strategists planning for 2008 contend, though, that they have not yet maxed out in the Northeast’s House contests.

Add to this the fact that the National Republican Congressional Committee, the organization that provides financial support to Republican incumbents and challengers is in serious trouble and practically broke, via CQPolitics GOP in Unusual Position: Behind in Money Chase;

Using data for Aug. 31 in the election cycle’s off-year as a snapshot, the figures show that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) reported $20.5 million more in cash on hand than the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), which reported only $1.59 million in the bank.