RNC Debt Hits $23 Million

On Monday afternoon, new RNC chairman Reince Priebus released figures on the RNC's staggering financial situation.

On Monday afternoon, new RNC chairman Reince Priebus released the figures for the RNC's staggering financial situation, while simultaneously announcing $500,000 in per month savings from laying off a third of the RNC staff.

According to a press release, the Republican National Committee year-end report through 2010 will show $725,650 cash-on-hand and $21,056,779 million in debt, with a total debt of $23 million. This debt was accrued under former chairman Michael Steele’s term, before Chairman Priebus was elected in mid-January.

As it stands, the RNC owes $8 million dollars to vendors – and for some of the smaller firms the RNC has employed, these debts could threaten their financial viability.

Priebus and the RNC note that they have already laid off 42 members - a full 1/3 - of their staff, for a total payroll savings of $500,000 a month. Doing a little math, that means that the annual total compensation of an average fired employee would have stood at around $140,000 – indicating relatively high-level firings.

As a point of reference, estimates of the RNC’s monthly operating costs had previously ranged from between $2 and $3 million a month.

The Republican National Committee did raise $105 million in 2010, but much of this came from high-cost fundraising which cost $0.64 for every $1 raised. And in 2010, their big donor program was at a ten year low – something that Chairman Priebus has already been moving on.

FrumForum reported on Friday that major donors and former finance chairmen convened in Washington, D.C. last week in order to get the ball rolling right. The wooing of big dollar donors seems to have already made some progress. “We exceeded the RNC's major donor goals by over 30 percent in January with only half the execution time,” says Priebus in the release.

And Republicans are already expecting even more progress. Major donors are now in the process of scheduling ‘national call days’, in which major donors converge on D.C. in order to solicit large donations by phone.

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