More signs of rift in GOP

In Data We Trust

By THOMAS B. EDSALL, NYT

The announcement on May 1 by the Republican National Committee that it had awarded a multimillion-dollar contract for data management and collection services to Liberty Works, a firm run by Richard Boyce, an associate of Karl Rove, has driven a new wedge between establishment and conservative forces battling for control of the party.

The extensive involvement of Rove, not only with Liberty Works, but also with all aspects of Republican efforts to build a technologically advanced, integrated voter list, has provoked new charges that Rove is acquiring unprecedented control over the Republican electioneering machine: over the aggregation of tactically valuable data and sharing it; over fund-raising; over candidate selection; over voter mobilization; and finally over issue prioritization.

Rove and Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, have angered the right wing of the Republican Party, which views them as focused on marginalizing the Tea Party movement. Centrist Republicans like Rove and Priebus see the hard right as having cost the party five Senate seats over the past two elections. They are determined to put an end to the dominant role of the Tea Party and its supporters in primary contests.

Rove’s ally, Boyce, is a partner in TPG Capital, a private equity firm based in Fort Worth and San Francisco. He is also a major Republican donor. During the 2011-12 election cycle, Boyce contributed $300,000 to Mitt Romney’s “super PAC,” Restore Our Future, and $100,000 to Rove’s super PAC, American Crossroads. According to both his own aides and the R.N.C., Rove does not have a financial stake in Liberty Works.

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