RNC Works to Bring Down its Debt

Politico reports:

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in an interview Friday that he intended to reduce his party’s debt to below $5 million going into the 2012 election year.

As of the end of February, the RNC still owed $21 million from the 2010 campaign cycle.

“My goal is that by the end of the year we’ll have $5 million or less [in debt],” Priebus said on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers,” noting that he took over the troubled national committee in January with $24 million in red ink.

But Priebus, the former Wisconsin GOP chairman, said he also wanted to have “tens of millions” in cash on hand by the end of 2011 and suggested that being liquid was as important as paying off bills.

“I have to balance the benefit of being debt-free to the necessity of having a lot of cash on hand to coordinate with the presidential campaign,” he said.

In a 30-minute sit-down, his first on C-SPAN, Priebus talked at length with reporters from POLITICO, C-SPAN and the New York Times about the coming presidential campaign.

Priebus reaffirmed that the 2012 Republican Convention would take place in Tampa, despite the calls by some of the traditional early primary states to move it out of Florida if Republicans there do not move their primary date back until after Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada have had their nominating contests.