NRCC exceeds fundraising goal on president’s dinner

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) says it raised $8 million for the annual president’s dinner, exceeding its goal by $1 million despite the absence of its presidential candidate and a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in an internal accounting scandal.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will not attend the annual dinner, which will begin at 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Washington Convention Center, but President Bush is scheduled to talk at length about the Arizona senator during his speech.

{mosads}Bush is expected to address “the pressures of the Oval Office and why it’s critical for the president to be a leader with experience and judgment,” a White House spokeswoman said.

While many Republicans blame Bush for the backlash against the party over the last two years, his ability to fundraise is still strong. Early this year, Bush helped raise $8.6 million for House candidates.

The bar for the 2008 dinner was lower than last year's event of $7.9 million. However, the 2008 dinner fundraising environment was much more complicated. Three special-election losses and the disclosure that a former NRCC official allegedly transferred $725,000 — including funds partially gained from last year’s dinner — into his personal and business bank accounts caused GOP morale to sag.

The dinner is the biggest fundraiser of the year for House and Senate Republican congressional campaign committees.

Charlie Daniels, Ronan Tynan and Trey Hensley will perform at the event.

Attendees of the dinner will dine on a first course of bouquet salad cucumber wrap with balsamic-glazed vegetable timbale, a second course of filet tender-braised short ribs atop Yukon potato mash with root vegetables compote, and an array of family-style sweets for dessert.

Sam Youngman contributed to this article.