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RNC offers $25 million to McCain

By Ralph Z. Hallow
April 1, 2008

Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan says, "I'm very proud that we were able to raise the money that we did last year, plus the good start that we've had this year, and save that money." (Mary F. Calvert/The Washington Times)

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The day that Sen. John McCain walked into party headquarters as the putative nominee, Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan told him the RNC had $25 million cash on hand ready for his campaign — five times what the Democratic National Committee told the Federal Election Commission it had in its vault last month.

"This $25 million was the most that any chairman has ever been able to say, 'This is available to you,' when a presumptive nominee walked in," Mr. Duncan told The Washington Times in his fourth-floor office on First Street Southeast.

It was more than the $13.8 million that Chairman Haley Barbour was able to turn over to Bob Dole, the Republican Party presidential nominee in 1996, or the $8.9 million that Chairman Jim Nicholson was able to give George W. Bush in 2000.

"And the day McCain walked in here, I had fully funded the Presidential Trust for $19.2 million," Mr. Duncan said.

Under complex federal campaign regulations, the Presidential Trust is the pot of donations — capped at $19 million — that a national party can spend through joint planning with the nominee's campaign team. The RNC can spend an unlimited amount over that $19 million — already $6 million and counting — for activities that aid Mr. McCain but cannot be coordinated with his campaign.

Republicans weren't expected to outperform Democrats at the pinnacle of national fundraising — not with the president's approval rating and the economy both sinking, the dollar hammered by the euro, 4,000 dead Americans in Iraq, and both houses of Congress transferred into Democratic hands.

"A year ago, when I took this job, there weren't a lot of people standing in line for it. Things didn't look that great," Mr. Duncan said. "But if you had told me we would have a [presidential] candidate with a 67 percent approval rating, statistically tied in some polls, ahead in others, I would have told you we're in pretty good shape right now."

He said the situation was so good that "head to head, we outraised the Democrats more than $30 million last year, and ended the year with about $17 million cash on hand. They had $2-million-something, and they still had debt."

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