The Republican Study Committee is the bastion of right-wing strategy on Capitol Hill. RSC fires executive director

The conservative Republican Study Committee, the bastion of right-wing strategy on Capitol Hill, has fired its longtime executive director Paul Teller, accusing him of leaking conversations with lawmakers.

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the chairman of the RSC, asked for his resignation, according to a senior Republican aide. Scalise announced the move at a Wednesday RSC meeting on Capitol Hill, a lawmaker present told POLITICO.


“Paul was divulging private, member level conversations and actively working against strategies developed by RSC members,” said the senior GOP aide familiar with the group. “Trust between senior staff and RSC members is paramount. No staffer is above a member.”

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Scalise and Teller didn’t immediately comment.

If there were any staffer on Capitol Hill that were nearly as powerful as a member of Congress, it was Teller. He has been involved in conservative strategy for more than a decade, helping drag legislative debates to the right. But he often chafed on Republican leadership, who saw him as causing intra-party drama.

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This comes on the same day Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) accused conservative outside groups of “using our members and they’re using the American people for their own goals.”

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