With its spending limited by campaign finance laws in the Republican presidential primary, the Romney campaign borrowed $20 million in the weeks leading up to the Republican convention, National Review reports.
The campaign borrowed the money to stay competitive with the Obama campaign, aides say, and has begun paying some of that sum back.
“We realized that we could collateralize this debt with $20 million of general-election funds that were already sitting in our bank account,” a senior Romney aide told National Review, adding that, “This is permitted by Federal Election Commission rules. In the past, the FEC has specifically contemplated candidates putting up their public financing payments as collateral.”
The campaign borrowed the money from the Bank of Georgetown and has paid back $9 million, including $5 million by the end of August and an additional $4 million in September.
Now that Romney is the nominee, he can start using millions of dollars the campaign accumulated through joint fundraising with the Republican National Committee, which could not be touched in the primary.
Get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox. Sign up for National Journal's morning alert, Wake-Up Call, and afternoon newsletter, The Edge. Subscribe here.
Leave A Comment