Dem Senate campaign arm $20M in debt

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ended the 2014 midterm cycle more than $20 million in debt, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

{mosads}The DSCC previously announced that it took out a $10 million loan in late October to support its efforts in the final two weeks before Election Day. But the latest filings show the DSCC also took out an additional $5 million loan at some point after that.

The rest of the debt is unrelated to campaign expenses. The DSCC took out a longer-term $5 million loan to buy its office building and now pays a monthly mortgage on it instead of rent.

Democrats finished with more than twice the amount of debt of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which reported $9 million in liabilities for the period ending Nov. 24.

The NRSC also finished with more cash in the bank, at $3 million, compared to $2.2 for the DSCC.

The DSCC outraised and outspent the NRSC this cycle, but Republicans picked up nine seats in the upper chamber to claim a 54 to 46 majority.

“From October 16th to November 24th the DSCC raised another $20 million,” a DSCC spokesperson told The Hill in a statement. “The DSCC outraised the NRSC last cycle by $41 million, bringing in $166.7 million for the cycle. We begin the cycle with $15 million in operations debt, one million less than we started the 2014 cycle with and will have the resources we need to take back the majority in 2016.”

Some Democrats fumed that the DSCC pulled about $2 million it had committed to the runoff election between incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.).

But the latest filings show the DSCC bet big before the runoff period, and with the Senate no longer in the balance and Landrieu’s prospects increasingly dim, opted to sit on the remaining cash it had on hand.

— This post was updated at 9am.