In April of 2009, I accepted Chairman Steele’s offer to join the staff of the Republican National Committee.  I came in with an understanding that we, the RNC, operate on the “kindness of strangers.”  Those strangers that I speak of are ordinary citizens sending their hard earned dollars to the RNC to serve as their voice in the political process.  The average contribution to the RNC is $42.00.  Despite the stereotype that we are the party of the rich, the vast majority of our donations are from small donations; as opposed to the Democratic National Committee that gets its donations from big labor and the Hollywood elites.  Accordingly, I watch carefully every dollar spent by my colleagues as we work to carryout the mission of the Committee.

My colleagues will tell you how I encourage them to shut down their computers, cut off their lights, and turn off the air conditioning units before they leave the office at night.  I had to explain to a young intern who cracked about my requiring energy efficiency: “ that as fiscal conservatives we should seek to reduce if not eliminate waste no matter whether it is energy, natural resources, or money—particularly when it is not our own.”  He understood once it was explained.  One staff member stated, after I chided employees for having the windows open with the air conditioning running, that “I guess we need a Dad around here.”  I took that as a compliment.

Chairman Steele asked me to come to the RNC and eliminate waste and insure that our supporters are receiving value for their donations.  So far, we are off to an excellent start.  After a lot of work by the RNC’s Division Directors, we increased the efficiency of our operations.  In addition, through competitive contract bidding and negotiations we achieved reductions in our mobile phone charges, liability insurance, and information systems contracts.  We are even noticing reductions in both our energy usage and expenses.

The bottom line is: the better guardians of our donors’ money, the more resources can be made available to our Party’s candidates and our State Parties to win elections.

Boyd K. Rutherford

RNC Chief Administrative Officer

Former Assistant Secretary for Administration,

 U.S. Department of Agriculture, and

Former Secretary, Maryland Department of General Services