Despite reduced debt, committee is still struggling
Despite reduced debt, committee is still struggling
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By Chris Casteel
Published: October 7, 2007
WASHINGTON — When Rep. Tom Cole took over the National Republican Congressional Committee this year, it was demoralized and in debt.
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‘Darkest before dawn'
Rep. Frank Lucas, who was elected in 1994, the year Republicans gained 54 seats to take over the House, said Cole "is in a position where Democrats are still giddy from the '06 elections and the public across the country is not ready to deal with '08.”
As a result, he said, Cole and others trying to raise money for Republican candidates can't get the attention of supporters.
"They say it's always darkest just before dawn,” said Lucas, R-Cheyenne. "We're in that dark part of the morning. (Republican) retirements don't help. The president's national popularity numbers don't help.”
But Lucas predicted that fundraising will pick up "dramatically” early next year.
Asked about the conflicts over the Republican campaign committee's operation, Lucas said, "There's always tension within any leadership structure. That's just business as usual.
Cole was Lucas' political consultant in 1994. In the early 1990s, he was political director of the campaign committee of which he is now chairman. And in 2000, he was chief of staff of the Republican National Committee.
That resume helped Cole win the chairmanship of the campaign committee, even though he had only been in Congress two terms.
But that there's a difference between operating a single race and running an operation that's engaged in numerous states.
"One's a battlefield commander and the other's the Pentagon,” Cole said.
Tough to predict
So far this year, Democrats are raising far more money for their House campaigns, they have much more money in the bank and less debt.
Cole had hoped he would have retired by now more than $14 million in debt left by his predecessor.
But the committee still owes about $4 million. He said the debt has been reduced every week.
Though not second-guessing the decisions made in the 2006 campaign cycle, he said the debt was the largest the committee ever accumulated.
But, he said, the committee is now focusing on the basics: retiring the debt, raising money for 2008 campaigns and recruiting candidates.
Though he said his best-case scenario is taking back the House, he didn't predict it.

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