At a private event hosted by Senator Dave McCormick, Republican of Pennsylvania, donors wandered through a sculpture hall at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh and partied with their cowboy hats on at a dinner where each plate cost $5,000.
The aftermath was less celebratory.
Dozens of employees at the Carnegie Museums sent an open letter to trustees, saying that the fund-raiser violated guidelines meant to safeguard the institution from partisan activities. The money raised was not directed to McCormick, who was elected in November, but to a nonprofit with ties to a political action committee he established. The organization supports conservative policy goals in energy and manufacturing.
Weeks after last month’s event, the museum network’s chief executive, Steven Knapp, acknowledged to employees that it was a violation of policy, accusing the fund-raiser’s organizers of providing misleading information and promising to contact McCormick.
“The people working for him have put us in a terrible situation, have really damaged our relationships internally and externally, and we didn’t deserve that,” Knapp said in a staff meeting, according to an audio recording obtained by The New York Times. He added, “I’m so outraged by what occurred to us that I would be just as happy to say, ‘No more politicians, period.’”
McCormick’s office did not respond to a request for comment….