Staff Reports
With billionaire casino magnate Steve Wynn’s exit as Republican National Committee finance chair over sexual harassment allegations, eyes turned to lobbyist and significant Donald Trump fundraiser Brian Ballard to fill the role.
But the GOP will have to look elsewhere, Ballard said.
“I would basically have to go on leave from my duties at the firm,” Ballard told POLITICO Influence. “I can’t do that to my partners or my clients. … The party needs someone not necessarily full-time, but someone that can devote the majority of their time to this.”
Ballard’s eponymous firm set up a D.C. office earlier this year, so he’s in the beltway here and there, but even so, there are 60 days a year where any Florida lobbyist worth their salt can’t dip out on their job, and Wynn’s past came back to bite him less than halfway through the Legislative Session.
Money doesn’t raise itself, so the RNC didn’t wait long after Ballard took himself out of the running to make their pick.
Top brass was expected to meet Wednesday to decide on the next finance chair, but by Tuesday afternoon sources in the Party told media outlets they made the selection: GOP mega-donor Todd Ricketts.
Rickett’s family owns the Chicago Cubs and he was at one time a Trump nominee for deputy Commerce secretary before he withdrew his name from consideration a few months after the inauguration.
