Investing.com -- Hours before the first U.S. republican presidential debate in 2016, Ben Carson's national financial chairman resigned on Thursday, in the wake of a bombshell report on his extravagant use of campaign funds.
Dean Parker, Carson's finance chief, quit the neurosurgeon's campaign after a report from Politico detailed records that he paid himself as much as $20,000 a month to run the financial operations for the candidate's fading White House bid. The Politico report also documents how Parker's team based in Mobile, Alabama, amassed $216,000 in expenses during a three-month period, according to publicly available campaign finance records.
Parker vehemently denied the report, dismissing the allegations as "all false."
"This is about Dr. Carson and the White House," Parker said, via AL.com. "I volunteered my resignation to make sure he knew that we would not make this about me. This is not about me, but about his candidacy for the White House."
The resignation dealt another blow to Carson, whose once stellar poll figures appear to be cascading by the day. In a Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register survey conducted in the Iowa capital last week, Carson placed a distant fourth behind Texas senator Ted Cruz, businessman Donald Trump and Florida senator Marco Rubio. When respondents were asked to list their first choice Carson earned 11% of the total selections, sharply below Cruz and Trump, which received 25% and 22% respectively. When asked to select their second choice, survey participants also ranked Carson fourth with 8% of the poll.
As late as November, Carson stood atop the deep field in a poll of likely voters in South Carolina when he narrowly led second-place Trump, according to a survey from Monmouth University. At the time, Carson and Trump were the only two candidates to receive more than 20% of the poll.
While Carson raised $23 million over the last three months of 2015, according to Politico, his year ended on a dour note after two prominent staffers quit his campaign. Carson's campaign has been reeling since campaign manager Barry Bennett and spokesman Doug Watts hastily resigned on New Year's Eve.
Parker, the latest to sever ties with Carson, also serves as the chairman of Innovate Mobile, a regional network that aims to support, enhance and develop technology-driven economic growth in the Mobile area. Previously, Parker spent 15 years as the CEO of Callis Communications, which provides end-to-end solutions for cloud-based telecommunications in the Southeast.
"I appreciate and honor Dean's tireless efforts on behalf of saving America," Carson said in a statement. "Our significant fundraising success has been due, in large part, to Dean's dedication and commitment to 'We the People.'"