Scorched Earth: Eric Cantor's staff, supporters drain cash from Virginia GOP, Dave Brat

Ray Allen, Mike Thomas, Donald Williams and ten other Cantor supporters continued their assault on the grassroots last night with a 13-6 vote on the committee to bleed the 7th District GOP bank account. Here is how it happened …

Last night at the Goochland Library the 7th District GOP Committee held their first meeting under the new chairmanship of Fred Gruber. [Ed. note: Gruber is the Tea Party-backed chairman who defeated Cantor’s favored incumbent, Linwood Cobb, which came weeks before Cantor’s loss.] The Treasurer’s Report showed that the 7th CD Committee had approximately $470,000 cash on hand, with almost the entire amount coming from Cantor’s Victory Fund. (As an aside, can the other side please stop bemoaning the loss of Linwood Cobb’s fundraising prowess? The man did nothing to raise money. He simply cashed the Cantor checks.) Ray Allen and Mike Thomas (who are not elected members of the 7th District Committee) were conveniently in attendance, carrying a voting member’s proxy, so that they could vote on the motions. [UPDATE: Ray Allen held a proxy for a voting member (Kristi Way – Cantor’s Chief of Staff); it is not clear whether Mike Thomas held a voting or nonvoting proxy.]

An initial motion was made by conservatives on the Committee to spend approximately $288K of the money to help Gillespie/Brat win in November, while saving the balance for future elections. Specifically, conservatives wanted to spend $288K to build a sophisticated grassroots operation for each of the ten counties in the 7th District to help with general election voter turnout in November. It would have far exceeded any sort of GOP victory efforts in the past, with each county having the necessary resources, talent, and technical support to increase our voter margins in November. This proposal was flatly denied.