(CNN) -- This is no way to run a party. The details of the scandal sweeping the New York Republican Party are tawdry, sad and infuriating -- and a wake-up call to a national party that is urgently seeking to make inroads among black, Latino, and young voters. Barely two weeks after RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and New York state Republican Chairman Ed Cox held a press conference at a black church in Brooklyn to launch the party's ambitious, $10 million diversity campaign, FBI agents arrested Malcolm Smith, a longtime black state legislator. According to federal prosecutors, Smith spent months organizing cash bribes to two top city Republican officials in exchange for a slot on the ballot in this fall's Republican primary for mayor. Unfortunately for Smith, a real estate tycoon he enlisted to make cash payments was, in fact, an undercover FBI agent, according to federal prosecutors.
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State lawmaker accused of bribing GOP officials to put him on ballot for New York mayor
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Errol Louis: For a party trying to woo blacks and Latinos, the damage is incalculable
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Louis: It could have started discussions about blacks always supporting Democrats
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As it is, he says, scandal will hamstring next black or Latino GOP candidate
@placeholder leaders are right to make their case to young, urban, black and Latino voters, and should be grooming candidates from all communities.