RNC offers $25 million to McCain

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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."

Before Karl Rove picked him last year to succeed Ken Mehlman as national chairman, Mr. Duncan gave his full time to the two banks he owned in eastern Kentucky. As a banker, he said, he learned how to say "no" to vendors who wanted him to spend more for micro-targeting donors and voters.

"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," he said.

Mr. Duncan understood that he was selected for his post as a caretaker until a standard-bearer and de facto leader of the national party emerged.

In more of a merger than a takeover earlier this month, the McCain campaign installed some of its own aides at the RNC — all big names in politics or finance: former Reagan White House political director Frank Donatelli, former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina, former RNC finance director Lew Eisenberg and former RNC political director Mike DuHaime, who managed Rudolph W. Giuliani's nomination bid.

One state party chairman said privately that Mr. Duncan's influence has increased — since he alone has the institutional organization in 50 states and the cash on hand — as the McCain campaign copes with internal power struggles and growth problems.

Campaign aides have to show sensitivity to the power of a national committee whose members were tepid to Mr. McCain's candidacy. When Mr. McCain announced his bid for the presidency, only 11 of the 168-member RNC supported him. By the time Mr. McCain had garnered enough pledged delegates to win the nomination on March 4, that number had barely reached 45.

"This was not a pro-McCain committee," an RNC member said. "Mitt Romney probably had 50 and Mike Huckabee 10. Therefore, McCain can't just step in and take over or control the process without working with the committee's power structure."

As RNC state chairmen meet in New Mexico this week, the McCain organization is looking for answers about the political climate in their states, polling trends, congressional and statewide races that might affect Mr. McCain's campaign, or where the senator from Arizona might lend a hand.