National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.) will tell his GOP colleagues today that the committee is debt-free for the first time in the 2008 election cycle.

“It is with a great deal of pride and gratitude that I am able to inform you that last week, the NRCC made the final payment on our $8 million bank loan,” Cole wrote in a letter to Republican Members. “The committee is debt free, including approximately $10 million in vendor debt from the 2006 campaign cycle, and operating in the black.”

In the letter, Cole reminded his colleagues that the NRCC ended the disastrous 2006 cycle, in which it lost 30 House seats, with more than $18 million in debts and just $400,000 in cash on hand.

Considering Republicans’ newfound minority status, the NRCC has raised a decent amount of money this cycle — more than $48 million by Cole’s account — but has lagged badly behind the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in available cash.

Now the NRCC is embroiled in an accounting scandal that could cost the committee more money and bring on unwanted scrutiny. But Cole made no mention of it in his letter.

“With our financial obligations met and our debt eliminated, our cash-on-hand is beginning to grow and I fully expect to have the resources necessary to win in November,” he wrote.
— Josh Kurtz