RNC Raised $20M in First Quarter, Paid Off Loans

The Republican National Committee said on Friday that it had raised about $20 million in the first quarter and now has about $10 million in cash on hand.

“We’ve paid off in full all of our loans we took out in 2010 — and we remain debt free,” RNC Treasurer Tony Parker said, according to Politico. “It is particularly noteworthy because our counterpart, the DNC, has got about $20 million in debt as we speak.”

But the Democratic National Committee hit back.

“Are they serious?” communications director Brad Woodhouse asked in an email to Politico. “We went into the red to win the presidency and they stayed in the black and lost the biggest prize in American politics and that is something they want to brag about?”

Meanwhile, Parker told GOP leaders at its spring meeting in Hollywood that the committee was moving toward its fundraising goal of $88 million this year. He added that the RNC received more money from major donors than in previous first quarters.

He also projected that the RNC would finish the year with an $8.5 million surplus, Politico reports.

“Reince and the finance team never slowed down and have not missed a beat,” he said, referring to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.

Priebus inherited more than $20 million in debt when he took over from former Chairman Michael Steele at the start of 2011. He was reelected to a second term in January.

For his part, Priebus said on Friday that he had hired the chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party, Matt Pinnell, to help state parties broaden their operations before the 2014 election cycle takes hold.

Pinnell will give up his state position commute to Washington.

“If we’re going to be successful in the long term, we have to start thinking in the long term,” Priebus said, Politico reports.