Tony Perkins urges conservatives to stop giving money to RNC

Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council and an influential social conservative, is urging his members to stop giving money to the Republican National Committee, POLITICO has learned.

"I've hinted at this before, but now I am saying it: Don't give money to the RNC," Perkins will tell FRC members in the group's next e-mail newsletter. "If you want to put money into the political process, and I encourage you to do so, give directly to candidates who you know reflect your values."

Perkins' move comes two days after it was disclosed that the committee spent nearly $2,000 at a lesbian bondage club near Los Angeles — a revelation that has revived Republican griping about Chairman Michael Steele and the national party.

"This latest incident is another indication to me the RNC is completely tone-deaf to the values and concerns of a large number of people they are seeking financial support from," Perkins writes.

His move comes a few weeks after Mark DeMoss, a prominent Christian conservative P.R. executive and donor, said after the disclosure of the RNC's controversial fundraising presentation that he would stop giving to the national party.

In his missive, Perkins also lamented that the RNC had touted their hiring super-lawyer Ted Olson to represent them in a campaign finance case.

"Yes, this is the same Ted Olson that is trying to overturn the results of the marriage amendment in California," Perkins writes. "The outcome of Olson's challenge to Prop 8 goes far beyond nullifying the votes of nearly 7 million voters in California; his efforts could lead to the overturning of amendments and laws in all 45 states that currently define marriage as the union of one man and one woman."

These actions raise a potentially more serious threat to the RNC than the mere embarrassment of using party money to pay for a night out at a establishment dubbed Voyeur West Hollywood. The committee has $9.46 million in the bank and already likely won't be able to offer the congressional committees and GOP candidates the sort of financial help they have in the past. If social conservatives — the core of the party base — withhold contributions, the RNC's money problem could become far worse.