The RNC says it is 'investigating' what happened, and as it does, many questions remain. 'Bondage club' expense irks insiders

Top donors and committee members for the Republican National Committee expressed outrage Monday over the nearly $2,000 the committee spent on “meals” at a bondage-themed club in West Hollywood.

The $1,946.25 — first reported in a story by The Daily Caller — was approved by the RNC from an expense filed by Orange County GOP consultant Erik Brown during a committee fundraising trip to Southern California.


The RNC said Monday that Brown, who did not answer many phone calls and e-mails, is repaying the expenditure. But for committee players who spoke to POLITICO, the expense is the latest example of what they see as a careless attitude Michael Steele has taken in spending RNC funds during his chairmanship.

“This incident does not help the RNC leadership dispel the charge that they are nothing but duplicitous high rollers and big spenders; at a time when we should have the president and his collectivist friends on the ropes, we find our leadership on the defensive. That’s a bad deal,” said former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, whom Steele beat in his campaign for RNC chairman.

“The RNC cannot attack Democrats for how the government spends taxpayer money when it is spending Republican donor money recklessly. Recent RNC spending stories suggest a tone-deafness at best and a misappropriation of funds at worst,” added Mike DeMoss, a longtime RNC donor who served as a liaison to the evangelical community for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

“Given that RNC funds were used to pay or reimburse a bill at a nightclub, it is immaterial whether or not Chairman Steele was actually there himself,” said DeMoss. “Ultimately, the RNC can spend however it wishes — it just may have less to spend the next time around. Sadly, the RNC could have been setting a new standard of political party fiscal responsibility; instead, we’re talking about expense reports with entertainment at a bondage club.”

RNC Communications Director Doug Heye insisted that Steele has “never” been to the club.

“The chairman was never at the location in question; he had no knowledge of the expenditure; nor does he find the use of committee funds at such a location at all acceptable,” Heye said.

The RNC says it is “investigating” what happened, and as it does, many questions remain.

As of Monday night, it was not clear who signed off on the expense or why. It remains unknown why Brown — who is not affiliated with the RNC — was allowed to spend committee funds. And assuming Steele was not there, it’s unclear if any RNC members or donors were there enjoying what The Daily Caller reported to be “topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex” on the committee’s dime.

“It goes without saying that such an expense is more than unacceptable,” said Henry Barbour, a committeeman from Mississippi. “I have to believe this is some sort of bad mistake and, I hope, bad reporting.”

Former South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson, who also ran against Steele, said wryly that a bondage-themed club is “not the best place to spend committee money or start up a voter registration program.”

“If what has been reported has any truth to it, then the perceived definition of Grand Old Party has been taken to a new and inappropriate level,” Dawson said.

The Daily Caller’s reporting has indeed been called into question by the RNC and other Republicans, who balked at the way the story suggested Steele had been at the club.

POLITICO confirmed the RNC expense by examining the committee’s February Federal Election Commission filing, but the committee says the outlet incorrectly suggests that Steele was at the nightclub.

Daily Caller founder Tucker Carlson contends the site “did not claim that Michael Steele personally visited” the club, but the wording in the story is less clear.

The portion of the story to which Carlson is referring reads: “Steele travels in style. A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,620.71 spent [update: the amount is actually $1,946.25] at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex.”

Heye criticized the story as “factually inaccurate” in an e-mail to POLITICO and accused the recently launched, conservative-leaning site of playing too loose with the facts.

“The piece repeated[ly] talks about ‘Steele’s expenses,’ when quite often they are finance/fundraising expenses and not just for the expenditure in question,” the spokesman e-mailed. “Though I made a clear distinction with [Daily Caller reporter] Jonathan [Strong], his story fails to do so.”

Whether the expenses were incurred in Steele’s presence or not would have been cleared up by “good reporting,” Heye said.

Carlson responded with a post on the site saying the RNC complaints “lack substance.”

“Despite claims to the contrary, no one from the committee has ever explained the specific circumstances of any of the expenses listed in its most recent disclosure filings,” Carlson wrote. “Our questions remain: Why did the committee spend more than $17,000 on private jets in the month of February? How and why was RNC business conducted in a bondage-themed nightclub, and how and why were the nearly $2,000 in charges that resulted approved by RNC staff?”