New fundraising numbers made public Sunday reveal that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee outraised its GOP rival by $1.4 million in January, despite having lost the House majority in spectacular fashion in November.

The National Republican Congressional Committee raised $3 million to the DCCC’s $4.4 million, according to each campaign committee’s monthly filing with the Federal Election Commission.

Although Democratic officials are excited about their showing, which their chairman said last week is a DCCC record for January, by another measure the Republican committee is in better shape moving forward. The NRCC reported $3.2 million on hand as of Jan. 31, virtually the same as the DCCC’s $3.4 million. But the NRCC reported $10.5 million in debt. That number is huge by some standards, but not when compared with the DCCC’s updated debt level of $18.6 million.

The updated numbers also reflect differing strategies in dealing with debt.

The DCCC used the vast majority of its January receipts to bolster the size of its bank account instead of paying off its debt. Specifically, the DCCC paid off roughly $400,000 in debt over the month, despite having raised $4.4 million.

The NRCC, by comparison, raised less than its Democratic rival over the month but used half of its haul, $1.5 million, to pay down a debt that stood at $12 million the previous month.

Speaking to reporters last week, newly tapped DCCC Chairman Steve Israel (N.Y.) said he would not “sugarcoat” the committee’s debt, which he resolved to pay off while aggressively fighting to reclaim the House majority by flipping 25 seats in 2012.