'Young Eagles' director Allison Meyers fired from RNC in bondage club controversy

By Dan Eggen

The staffer fired by the Republican National Committee for authorizing a $2,000 payment for a night out at a bondage-themed club was the head of the Young Eagles, a GOP program aimed at cultivating major donors under 45 years old, Republicans familiar with the details of the case said Tuesday.

Allison Meyers, the Young Eagles director, asked the RNC to reimburse a GOP consultant for the costs of a Jan. 31 after-party event for young Republicans at Voyeur in West Hollywood, Calif., which features topless female dancers wearing bondage gear and simulating sex acts. Meyers' identity was first reported by the National Journal's Hotline.

The disbursement of money for the Voyeur gathering has become a major embarrassment for the RNC and its high-profile chairman, Michael S. Steele, at a time when the GOP is hoping to capitalize on an energized conservative base for this year's midterm elections. The RNC acknowledged late Monday it had fired an unnamed staffer over the affair, but spokesman Doug Heye declined to comment Tuesday on whether Meyers was the staffer who was let go.

The trip to Voyeur took place after an official RNC Young Eagles dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel attended by about 50 young Republican donors, according to the RNC and other officials. Hotline, citing several unidentified sources, said Meyers organized both the official RNC event and the after-party at the club. About a dozen young Republicans, including Meyers, attended the Voyeur gathering, GOP officials said.

One of those in attendance was Erik Brown, a GOP consultant and donor whose company, Dynamic Marketing Inc., has earned about $160,000 from GOP campaigns. GOP officials said Meyers tried to put the $1,946.25 tab on a credit card but was rejected; Meyers then asked Brown to cover the bill with promises that the RNC would reimburse him, these officials said. Brown has not responded to e-mails and telephone messages seeking his side of the story.

The RNC cut a check to Brown on Feb. 4, which was dutifully reported on a Federal Election Commission expense form that exploded into the news cycle this week. Brown has already lost business because his name immediately became linked to the scandal. Chuck DeVore, a conservative GOP candidate for U.S. Senate in California, announced Monday that he was severing ties with Brown and DMI, which has offices in Washington and Los Angeles.

The RNC, for its part, has been eager to distance itself from the Voyeur visit, emphasizing that Steele was flying back from Hawaii at the time of the gathering and had no idea about the expense reimbursement. In an internal e-mail obtained Monday by The Washington Post, RNC chief of staff Ken McKay wrote: "Our investigation has determined that following a Young Eagles event in Los Angeles, a group of individuals did attend such a club on their own. This was not an RNC sanctioned event and was not associated in any way with any RNC official event."

McKay also wrote that the fired RNC staffer, who is not named in the memo, "was aware that this activity was not eligible for reimbursement and had been previously counseled on this very subject."

The RNC's young donors program, which requires annual donations of $2,500 to $7,500 per person depending on age, has come under fire for its sometimes edgy approach to fundraising. For example, Young Eagles donors are scheduled to gather for a retreat in North Carolina on April 22 at a firearms training facility run by Xe Services, the controversial military contractor previously known as Blackwater, which has been dogged with allegations of civilian killings and other abuses in U.S. war zones.