Consultant sues RNC host committee claiming nonpayment

A national fundraiser is claiming that the host committee for the 2008 Republican National Convention has failed to pay $761,000 in commissions it has coming.

In a suit filed in Ramsey County, the Alexandria, Va.-based fundraising firm 3 Dog Consulting alleges that the host committee has paid only about half the commissions owed for the job it did raising more than $36 million for the convention, which ran Sept. 1-4 in St. Paul.

St. Paul attorney Alan Weinblatt, who represents 3 Dog, asked the court on Friday to attach enough of the committee's remaining assets to satisfy the debt should his client prevail in court.

The amount earned by 3 Dog was $1.4 million, according to its court filings. The firm says it has received only $684,000.

Minneapolis attorney John Knapp said the host committee will "vigorously contest" 3 Dog's claims, which he said ran beyond the scope of their contract.

He denied that the committee, which is a nonprofit, was about to disperse its assets.

"We think the facts will bear out that we've fully complied with all of our obligations, and we're disappointed that 3 Dog chose to take this to litigation," Knapp said.

In May 2007, 3 Dog signed a contract with the committee to raise cash and in-kind contributions for the convention from outside Minnesota. The firm, headed by Julie Wadler, former deputy finance director of the National Republican Congressional Committee, specializes in Republican political events and candidates.

In return, the host committee agreed to pay 3 Dog $15,000 per month and 4 percent of the amount it raised for the convention from outside the state.

Weinblatt said that 3 Dog raised $36,120,000 for the host committee, the lion's share of the $54 million that the committee eventually took in. But he said that 3 Dog stopped getting paid in mid-August, shortly before the convention.

Last October, host committee CEO Jeff Larson estimated that 57 percent of the cash raised by the host committee came from outside the state, 3 Dog's fundraising territory.

Knapp said that the host committee has paid 3 Dog in full. He said the host committee agreed to pay 3 Dog only for cash donations from corporations outside Minnesota, not for individual or in-kind contributions.

"We have some correspondence from the host committee [to Wadler] saying, 'Go for it,'" he said. "That's what she did and they didn't stop her."

According to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, the host committee had $5.5 million in cash on hand as of Jan. 31. It's listed as inactive on the Minnesota secretary of state's website.

In that same report, the host committee lists among its debts a consulting fee of $738,920 to 3 Dog. The report characterizes the invoice as "in dispute," and Knapp said that the committee wasn't conceding that it owed 3 Dog the money.

Weinblatt said he will wait to see whether the host committee accepts a stand-still agreement on its assets until the dispute is settled.

Otherwise, he said, he's keeping open an April 7 court date to ask the Ramsey County sheriff to seize the host committee's property.