A New Mystery for RNC Chief

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March 04, 2009 5:22 PM

Michael Steele is no stranger to controversy.  The new Republican National Committee chief has barely been on the job and he's had a public feud with Rush Limbaugh, and revealed to be under FBI scrutiny for past campaign payments to his sister's defunct company.

Now, there's a new mystery: $400,000 from various Maryland Republican campaign accounts in the waning days of the 2006 election, when Steele was running for Senate.  Nearly $65,000 came from Steele's campaign -- and it all went to a firm, "Allied Burton LLC," which claims on its Web site to trade aluminum, coffee beans, cement and other commodities.

The reporter for WBAL-TV in Baltimore talked with a spokesperson for Steele's GOP 2006 ticketmate, then-Gov. Robert Erlich. Says WBAL:

The spokesman said the money might have been used to pay for six busloads of poll workers on Election Day in 2006. The buses carried several hundred black men from Philadelphia -- many of whom were homeless -- as part of a strategy to attract black support that was denounced at the time by Democrats as deceptive.

A call to Steele at the RNC wasn't returned.  A call to Allied Burton's Texas office -- identified as a P.O. Box in Houston -- got a recording saying the number was disconnected.  A message left at the Maryland office (a P.O. Box in Capitol Heights,) was not immediately returned. (h/t TPM)