RNC Exec Gentry Collins Resigns, Attacks Michael Steele

Embattled Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele sustained another big blow today as the RNC’s political director, Gentry Collins, resigned with an acerbic letter sent to the party’s executive committee.

The letter is filled with details but mainly focusing on what Collins characterizes as the RNC’s inadequate efforts to raise funds for races, something which he blames for close Republican losses in the last election. As Politico’s Jonathan Martin reports:

[Collins] makes the case that the party’s lack of money directly resulted in missed opportunities in an otherwise stellar year for the GOP.

Collins cites a study that he says found that the GOP could have won the Washington and Colorado Senate races with a better field operation and says that he’d chalk up narrow gubernatorial losses in Connecticut, Minnesota and Vermont to the same lack of funds for a ground game.

The veteran Republican operative also tallies 21 House contests in every corner of the country that he asserts “could have been competitive if not for lack of funds.”

There are more excerpts from Collins’ letter in the article so be sure to read the whole thing.

Tim Mak at FrumForum has a copy of the actual letter.