GOP now grappling with deficit

For Virginia Republicans, being out of power quite literally has a cost -- about $150,000.

That, insiders say, is the deficit the GOP faces after a May nominating convention that generated fewer bucks than expected, a pullback by deep-pocketed donors and an underwhelming response to a multiple appeals for money.

And things were supposed to get better at Republican headquarters on Grace Street after Del. Jeff Frederick of Prince William was run off as chairman for insurance man Pat Mullins of Louisa?

The crummy state of the state party's finances, complicated by the lousy economy, is not widely known. A partial picture emerges through filings with the Federal Election Commission.

Efforts are under way to erase the red ink, word of which is seeping out at the worst time: the run-up to elections that could fully banish the GOP to the minority.

To its credit, as the voice of the opposition, the Republican Party has become more aggressive; at times, snarky.

Tim Kaine has been needled for his dual roles as departing governor and Democratic national chairman. However, playing bad cop to gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell's good cop requires resources.

In other words, attack-flack Tim Murtaugh can't fire off his signature nasty-grams if the GOP can't pay for telephone or Internet service.

A party's finances can be inside baseball -- Virginia Democrats, for example, have been fined $5,000 by the FEC for screwy filings dating to 2006 -- but they are data points, measures of a supposed article of faith in politics here: fiscal discipline.

Concern may not register with the electorate, but it could with those who make it possible to reach voters: wealthy individuals and muscular corporations whose fat checks pay for polling, advertising and voter mobilization.

Mullins, quite literally a gray-hair blooded in the suburban battlegrounds of Fairfax County before repairing to rural Louisa, was expected to bring a grown-up approach to the party's management, which was missing under Frederick, a mercurial Gen-X'er toppled in April.

Perhaps residual resentment over Frederick is complicating Mullins' efforts to restore dollars and sense. But so, too, may be concern over how Republicans spend what cash they have.

There are salaries, premiums for health insurance, fees for fundraising consultants -- all continuing, substantial expenses incurred at a point on the political calendar when the GOP should be on a solid footing.

A handout from McDonnell helped -- a bit. It's said that he chipped in $50,000 to offset convention costs. But activities that were expected to produce scads of cash didn't.

According to top Republicans, the party hoped to harvest $380,000 from the convention and gala dinner but came up $90,000 short. Once all the bills were paid, so the plan went, the GOP was supposed to bank $170,000. Instead, Republicans found themselves in a hole, perhaps $30,000. By June, fundraising faded -- quickly -- pushing the shortfall to roughly $150,000.

It's not the first time the GOP has been mired in debt. There were the bad old days of the 1980s, when Democrats pulled off what they hope to do again in the 2000s: a three-peat for governor.

Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 6496814 or . Watch his video column Thursdays on TimesDispatch.com. Listen to his analysis Fridays at 8:33 a.m. on WCVE (88.9 FM).