Elections put House Dems in $20 million hole

The Democrats’ gains in the House this cycle left them almost $20 million in debt, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

Republicans also finished the cycle in the red, but much less so than their Democratic counterparts, which could give the GOP an advantage in 2010.

{mosads}Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) made it a constant refrain during the election cycle: The party was going to have play in more districts than it would be able to afford. Now, after securing a $20 million loan in the campaign’s closing months, the DCCC finds itself paying the piper.

The DCCC has already made good on a quarter of its loan, secured from Bank of America, but with $15 million left to repay, the party will find much of its post-election fundraising headed back to Bank of America’s coffers.

That wasn’t the only debt incurred in the waning days of the cycle, according to the FEC reports. The DCCC also owes various vendors and pollsters nearly $4.9 million in outstanding invoices.

That number includes more than $1.7 million owed to seven prominent Democratic polling firms and $960,000 to five media production companies.

The DCCC finished the most recent reporting period, which closed on Nov. 24, with $2.7 million in the bank. Though the party can likely expect a significant financial boost now that it has expanded its Congressional majority, it still finds itself in significantly more debt than its Republican opponents.

But Democrats expressed optimism at their ability to rebuild their coffers while Republicans say their debt could have been much worse.

The National Republican Congressional Committee paid all its vendors, according to FEC filings, but had a $6 million debt of its own to contend with. An NRCC source pegs the number today closer to $6.5 million.

Though the NRCC secured an $8 million loan late in the cycle, the party used just over $6 million of it through Nov. 24. The committee is expected to use more of the loan in coming months, but will likely end below the $8 million ceiling.

The NRCC, which has raised $67 million in 2008, maintained a balance of just $983,881 through the post-general election reporting period.

The loans proved key to both parties’ chances in several important seats around the country, but debt can saddle committee chances at building impressive war chests for the following cycles. The NRCC didn’t relieve itself of debt it incurred during the 2006 cycle until December 2007, en route to a disappointing fundraising performance through 2008.

But NRCC chairman Tom Cole (Okla.)  will leave the committee with dramatically less debt than he himself inherited. Cole took over the chairmanship of a committee $18 million in the red, while his counterpart, Van Hollen, took on just $10 million in debt, according to post-election reports filed in 2006.

Republicans never made up the initial $9 million gap between the two committees. This year, though Democrats will be able to raise money faster than Republicans, Van Hollen and party fundraisers will have to work hard to make up their $12 million deficit.

On the Senate side, both parties racked up less red ink, though Democrats still face significant debt. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee will begin the 2010 election cycle with $12.9 million in debt and just $229,000 in the bank, according to post-election filings.

Through Nov. 24, the National Republican Senatorial Committee had $3.5 million in debt, an amount outgoing chairman John Ensign (R-Nev.) said was higher than the $2 million goal the party had set itself. The NRSC still had $2.8 million in the bank.

The cash on hand totals for the Senate committees do not reflect the final week and a half of the 2008 campaign, which ended when Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss (R) won re-election by a wide margin on December 2. Both parties spent millions on the race, details of which will not be available until the end-of-year filings in January.

This story was updated at 4:33 p.m.