In California, state Republican legislators who run on the GOP’s name, use GOP resources, use GOP volunteers and owe their elections to the core of GOP voters living in their districts contribute 10 percent of the money they raise to the state Republican Party to help underwrite party operations. A similar “tithing” system ought to be implemented in Nevada….retroactively.
I mean, if certain Republican elected officials (and you know who you are) won’t vote as Republicans, the least they could do is help fund the party’s operations, right?
Seriously, though. These Republican elected officials are operating independently but under the organization’s business name (Republican Party), benefiting from the organization’s customers (voters) and using the organization’s operations manual (the party platform). That’s called a “franchise.” And in the business world, such folks pay a franchise fee to the corporate office to fund support services.
Why shouldn’t elected Republicans pay a similar fee to help fund the support services of the state party?
It’d be an interesting exercise if someone out there (hint, hint) would go onto the Secretary of State’s website, look at each of the three campaign reports for each Republican state senator and assemblyperson who ran for office in 2008 (not to mention congressional representatives and state constitutional officers), added up the total amount of money each raised, and then computed how much money would have gone to underwrite the GOP’s operation’s based on them donating just 10 percent each to the party.
I’m betting it would have been MORE than enough to hire a truly professional and competent staff to assist legislators in Carson City during this last legislative session instead of having nobody there.
Here, I’ll get you started:
Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio – who voted for the largest tax hike in the state’s history in 2003 before voting for the new largest tax hike in state history in 2009 and obviously has no problem saddling taxpayers with higher “fees” – raised $289,500 during the first reporting period in 2008, $189,909 in the second period and $34,250 in the third period. Altogether, Sen. Raggio raised $513,659 thanks for being a “franchise” of the Republican Party.
Ten percent of Sen. Raggio’s half-million dollars would have been just $50,000. The Legislature was in session for roughly five months, including January. That $50,000 alone would have paid for not one, but TWO full-time highly-qualified professional political operatives for the entire duration of this disastrous legislative session.
Let the tithing begin!
