Finance team shake-up

Bush, Senate GOP finance team shake-up 

By Burgess Everett

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is interviewing candidates for a new finance director for 2016, a GOP source said on Monday.

Claire Holloway Avella, the NRSC's current finance director, will begin maternity leave on Wednesday, and the group is still looking for a replacement. In the interim, Les Williamson, who had been a top finance aide to Jeb Bush's presidential campaign, will join the NRSC's staff to help shore up the group's fundraising.

Williamson, who also worked as an NRSC finance staffer last year, will also begin as a senior adviser to the finance department on Wednesday. A Bush spokeswoman said Williamson left the campaign in October and has been "assisting Jeb delegates in raising money for their ballot access efforts."

An NRSC aide said group officials are interviewing several candidates for a permanent finance director position as they prepare for a difficult campaign to defend their 54 seat majority, including several races in blue and purple sates. Republicans are defending 24 seats in 2016; Democrats are defending 10.

Another former NRSC official, Heather Larrison, is Bush's finance director, and while several GOP sources said she would be a logical permanent replacement atop the NRSC's finance department, a senior Bush campaign official denied that Larrison has any plans to leave the Bush campaign.

Within GOP circles, Larrison and Williamson were credited as major factors in the GOP's 2014 Senate takeover and success followed them to Bush-world, where the presidential candidate emerged as a fundraising powerhouse last summer only to slump later in the polls.

The NRSC has been consistently outraised by its Democratic counterpart in 2015, with Democrats pulling in $12 million more in contributions than the NRSC through November.

"Despite Democrats being in the minority, the DSCC outraised the NRSC 9 out of 11 months so far this cycle posting strong totals in comparison to the Republicans' lackluster numbers," said Sadie Weiner, a spokeswoman for the DSCC.

But the NRSC went into December with a slight cash on hand advantage and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is saddled with millions in debt from the 2014 losses.