Here's Why There Could Be an Audit of the Senate GOP's Campaign Arm

The Republican Party had momentum heading into Election Day, and it fizzled. The red wave crashed onto a Democratic storm wall in a humiliating midterm shortfall that should plunge all factions of the Republican Party into a nasty debate over who shoulders most of the blame.

I fear there will be an inordinate time spent on candidate quality, which I’m not saying isn’t true—the GOP did have some bad picks—but most of them could have clinched wins if campaign fundamentals were followed. Being the anti-Biden party was not enough, and I think our side just assumed the lousy economy, Biden’s incompetence, and the congressional Democrats’ pervasive amateur-hour antics were enough to sail into the majority.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) gave off that vibe chairing the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, when he decided to abscond on a luxury yacht to Italy in the last weeks of August. It seemed to go together with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) waving the white flag of surrender around the same time. Scott had been accused as early as last February of using the NRSC to boost only his profile, not that of the Republican Party, and altering how fundraising hauls were allocated to candidates. With the GOP failing to retake the Senate, some Republicans want an audit of their campaign arm (via Politico):

During a tense, three-hour-long meeting of the Senate GOP Conference, Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said there should be an independent review of how the party’s campaign arm spent its resources before falling short of its goal of winning the majority.
Scott responded in a statement issued after this story was first published Wednesday morning, describing taking over the committee two years ago and “immediately” learning that previous staffers had been paid “hundreds of thousands of dollars in unauthorized and improper bonuses.”
Kevin McLaughlin, the executive director of the NRSC during the 2020 election cycle under then-Chairman Todd Young (R-Ind.), said in response: “This is what children do when they are caught with their hand in the cookie jar. They lash out. Obviously this is crazy and we welcome a full audit.”
The back and forth is part of an all-out war enveloping the party following last week’s election. Over the past week, the political operations aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and NRSC Chair Rick Scott (Fla.) have clashed openly, blaming the other for the disappointing outcome — even before Scott launched a long-shot leadership challenge to McConnell.