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Uploaded: Wednesday, March 4, 2009, 3:34 PM
Republican leader taking heat over pay package
Palo Altan Duf Sundheim's compensation for spearheading a candidate-recruitment organization stirs up a party controversy
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by Jay Thorwaldson
Palo Alto Online Staff
Photo
 | Duf Sundheim of Palo Alto, the former two-term head of the California Republican Party, has become the focus of an internal party controversy relating to his salary-and-benefits package as head of a group aiming to recruit and screen future party candidates statewide.
A Sacramento Bee article reported his pay package as "$900,000 in salary and benefits in the 2007-2008 election cycle," without explicitly stating it was for a full two years. The package is really $450,000 per year, Sundheim said Wednesday (March 4) in an interview with the Weekly.
Many Republicans and others interpreted it as a one-year package and rightfully became concerned, Sundheim said.
"I got a lot of phone calls and e-mails speaking of $900,000 a year" after the Bee article appeared Tuesday, he said.
Another area of misunderstanding is that "there are absolutely no state or other government money, or Republican Party money, involved – they are all donated funds," he said.
The high $450,000-a-year package also raised eyebrows, but Sundheim said that rate was established early in large part to compensate him for the four years he spent in the unpaid party-chairmanship post.
He said as he was completing a second two-year term as party chair he was approached by a group of Republican leaders who wanted him to head up a new candidate-recruitment organization, California Republicans Aligned for Tomorrow (CRAFT).
Sundheim said he started working on CRAFT in 2007 after he had been approached by supporters of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asking him to remain actively engaged in party politics.
"I said I want to go back to work. I said I did this (chairmanship) out of love for the party but I have two kids to put through college," Sundheim recounted.
"They said, 'We will pay you this (amount) for two years to make up for the time you volunteered,'" he said, adding that one way of looking at the large package would be as a six-year compensation.
Sundheim since has voluntarily cut his annual pay to $240,000 plus $2,000 a month reimbursement to cover "many trips to Sacramento" to interview potential future candidates. The reduction was not a reaction to the publicity about the compensation package, he said.
He also said criticism of CRAFT for not showing visible recruitment results is completely wrong. That perception is in large part based on a policy of confidentiality with the candidates. He said about three dozen prospective candidates have been identified, based on qualifications.
If elected, the range of candidates would broaden the base of the party, he acknowledged.
He reiterated that he was "not surprised" by the release of information about the pay package. "It's been publicly available for two years" in IRS "527" political-group filings, he said.
He said when he was asked by attorneys whether the CRAFT finances should "go disclosure or non-disclosure," he chose disclosure.
"I said I want this fully disclosed, with reports filed so people know what's going on."
Former California Governor Pete Wilson, a co-founder of CRAFT, defended Sundheim in a statement to the Weekly: "Duf is intelligent, talented and CRAFT is very fortunate to have him leading the organization.
"CRAFT's work is vital if California is going to elect more Republican statewide constitutional officers and legislators. He is a first-rate professional and consultant, and the CRAFT board has determined that his compensation is commensurate with his skills," Wilson said.
"First-rate political consultants are difficult to find and retain and California Republicans and CRAFT are fortunate to Duf Sundheim." Wilson is an adviser to CRAFT but is not on the group's board.
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Posted by Rush, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Mar 4, 2009 at 6:39 pm $450,000 per year is a pretty low salary by Republican standards. They guy has to keep up with the Joneses.
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Posted by BFrank, a resident of the Charleston Meadows neighborhood, on Mar 4, 2009 at 9:03 pm What do you think Pelosi makes? Check that out if you want to raise some eyebrows..
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Posted by Amusing story, a resident of another community, on Mar 4, 2009 at 11:29 pm When Duf Sundheim ran for the city council (or was it another office?) at a candidates forum that took place in the council chambers he quoted from the bible and used the bible to back up his positions.
It was so inappropriate it was funny. What was amusing was that he didn't know it was inappropriate when running for a secular office. Like he just fell off the turnip wagon.
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Posted by resident, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 5, 2009 at 7:49 am oh, so now we're castigating people for making high salaries? What has this world come to? We ought to just go live in the dark ages, become peasants.
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Posted by Brendan, a resident of the South of Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 5, 2009 at 10:26 am Well, at least there's no golden parachute...I think??
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Posted by Rush, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Mar 5, 2009 at 10:31 am If he was paid with Republican campaign donation money, then the donors have a right to complain about the payouts, especially considering the extremely poor Republican performance in the last election.
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Posted by W. Smith, a resident of the Palo Alto Orchards neighborhood, on Mar 5, 2009 at 10:50 am Hey, I used to volunteer for a party. How do I get a $900,000 contract to help compensate me for all the time I put in?
And Pete Wilson supports him, saying "First-rate political consultants are hard to find." Sounds like the good ol' boys sticking up for each other, just like the corporate boards justifying hugely inflated salaries and bonuses for their buddy CEOs. If Duf were so talented then the California Republican Party would not continue to be in the hands of reactionaries and so out of touch with mainstream California.
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Posted by GOP, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Mar 5, 2009 at 11:33 am W.Smith,
you chose "the socialist party of the people" your share goes to the needy.
How Noble.
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Posted by Hank Lawrence, a resident of Menlo Park, on Mar 5, 2009 at 12:31 pm You have to love GOP. If the industrious don't make a lot of money how will the socialists (disguised as Democrats) be able to spend it?
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Posted by Deflation sprial, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Mar 5, 2009 at 1:25 pm Precisely. With the flurry of new taxes at the local, state and federal levels, people will simply have less money to spend.
The increase in CA sales tax goes into effect April 1. And there's an income tax surcharge, plus no tax refund. Oh yea, these tax increases are gonna make people want to buy more cars and homes to stimulate the economy! LOL!
And hence the deflation spiral continues. We usher in the Depression as more businesses go bankrupt, government continues to spend our way deeper into a hole while continuing to take more more money from the few left with incomes.
Dark ages and peasantry indeed.
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Posted by Paul, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Mar 5, 2009 at 5:19 pm Hey, let him have the money. Somebody has to do this job, and he can't be getting much satisfaction out of the outcomes.
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Posted by Jerry, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Mar 5, 2009 at 8:05 pm It is always fascinating how responders tend to manage their comments about a narrow specific issue to include much broader expressions of personal opinions that even their best friends and relatives have grown tired of hearing. Oh, maybe that is why they are posting!
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Posted by YSK, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Mar 6, 2009 at 1:51 am Leave Duff alone, it's expensive to be an endangered species these days.
Jerry, totally! Your family sick of hearing you vent and your best friends no longer answer the phone? Bummer. We're here Jerry. For you...
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Posted by thaddeus, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 7, 2009 at 12:36 am To Jerry of Crescent Park; I see absolutely nothing wrong with people who see a connection between narrow, specific concerns and larger issues of the day. C. Wright Mills said the sign of a successful education is when people can make the connection between their own biography and history. Guess that hasn't happened with you.
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