Republican Party of Minnesota Chair Keith Downey, who requested and received a 70 percent increase in his salary as chair, has been attempting to remove the salary of Chris Fields, who serves as Deputy Chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota.
Ted Lovdahl, the chair of the 8th Congressional District Republicans, wrote in a memo this week to Downey that his attempt to remove Fields' salary "has created a hostile work environment to the detriment of the GOP statewide."
Downey and Fields were both re-elected as party officers at the Republican Party of Minnesota State Central Committee in April.
Fields is currently paid $35,000 per year to serve as deputy chair and he did not request a salary increase when he was elected to serve another term as deputy chair. He continues to be paid while negotiations continue on resolving the salary dispute.
As detailed in a previous post, Downey requested a 70 percent increase in his salary days before Downey acknowledged in an e-mail to party activists that the party "still carries too much debt." Downey's request for a salary increase also came during the same week the party terminated approximately 20 employees when the party closed their internal telemarketing and fundraising call center.
Downey was paid $50,000 per year as chair during his first term, but requested a salary increase of $35,000 per year to serve another two-year term as chair. Downey's new salary of $85,000 was recently approved by the Republican Party of Minnesota's State Executive Committee, which is chaired by Downey.
Recent campaign finance reports show the Republican Party of Minnesota is currently over $1 million in debt. Fields declined a request for a comment and Downey did not respond to a request for comment.
In interviews today, numerous party leaders spoke on background and expressed considerable concerns about the public relations problem created by Downey making the only black party officer work without compensation by removing his salary.
