RNC fundraising rebounds under Priebus

The Republican National Committee is rocking the red - er, green.

The once nearly bankrupt committee has raised more money from major donors since Reince Priebus took over as RNC chairman at the end of January than it had raised in all of 2009-2010 under predecessor Michael S. Steele, RNC officials told The Washington Times on Sunday night.

The RNC reports raising $6.7 million in June, raising its total so far for the year to nearly $37 million.

The GOP’s national governing body and chief fundraising organization has retired $6.7 million of the nearly $25 million in debt it inherited from the Steele era.

The RNC reports amassing $7.3 million in cash on hand under Mr. Priebus “to help make Barack Obama a one-term president,” committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said. “Grass-roots and major donors continue to come back to the committee, and the chairman’s major-donor fundraising has been exceptionally strong through June.”

The committee is now claiming it “will have the resources and the funding it needs to put a Republican back in the White House.”

Mr. Obama is expected to raise a record $1 billion by November 2012.

Beleaguered by reports of mismanagement and a reluctance by Mr. Steele to put much time into courting potential donors, the committee attracted fewer major donors, and total fundraising from those donors slowed to a trickle. Coupled with lavish spending, the committee was left deeply in debt.

Mr. Priebus, the former Wisconsin party chairman, has spent much of his time in office on the phone and traveling around the country making personal appeals to wealthy contributors, apparently succeeding in winning back their trust in the RNC.