Eric Kleefeld February 1, 2011, 1:06 PM

Newly-elected Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is putting all the bad news right out there. With the RNC releasing a year-end federal report showing over $21 million in debt, he simultaneously put out a statement saying that fully-adjusted numbers would ultimately show that it’s even worse — that is, he has an even bigger hole to dig out of.

“While the year-end FEC report reveals the Republican National Committee is $21 million in debt, I believe it is best to get out all the facts as we know them associated with our financial position,” Priebus said in a statement. “To date, the committee has approximately $23 million in debt: $15 million in loans, and $8 million owed to vendors.”

Priebus also implicitly put the blame on his predecessor as chairman, Michael Steele, who he defeated this past January. In the statement, Priebus says that prior fundraising operations were very inefficient:

“The RNC transition team is committed to improving the committee’s financial situation in two areas: lowering costs of raising small donations and restoring the trust of major donors in the Republican Party. The RNC did raise nearly $105 million in 2010 mainly through low-dollar solicitations online and in the mail, but the costs to raise it were simply too high at approximately 64 cents for every dollar raised. Even more troubling, our major donor programs are at 10-year lows.

Here is the full statement:

RNC CHAIRMAN PRIEBUS STATEMENT ON YEAR-END FEC REPORT

WASHINGTON - Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus issued the following statement regarding the committee’s year-end report through December 31, 2010 showing $725,650 cash-on-hand and $21,056,779 million in debt:

“While the year-end FEC report reveals the Republican National Committee is $21 million in debt, I believe it is best to get out all the facts as we know them associated with our financial position. To date, the committee has approximately $23 million in debt: $15 million in loans, and $8 million owed to vendors.

“During our transition period at the RNC we are focused like a laser on putting together a plan that retires all of our debt as quickly as possible. That process begins with complete transparency with our donors, both on what is owed and the path ahead.

“The RNC transition team is committed to improving the committee’s financial situation in two areas: lowering costs of raising small donations and restoring the trust of major donors in the Republican Party. The RNC did raise nearly $105 million in 2010 mainly through low-dollar solicitations online and in the mail, but the costs to raise it were simply too high at approximately 64 cents for every dollar raised. Even more troubling, our major donor programs are at 10-year lows.

“We have our work cut out for us, but I am confident we will succeed in turning around the RNC through hard work, transparency and honesty with our hardworking grassroots activists and donors. That is why in the first two weeks we have reduced staff from 124 positions to 82, frozen all major contracts until they can be evaluated, and assembled an incredibly strong finance transition team.

These moves alone have resulted in payroll savings of $500,000 a month and we exceeded the RNC’s major donor goals by over 30 percent in January with only half the execution time. I am excited about these first steps, but recognize we have a long way to go to build the world-class political organization necessary to defeat President Obama. I will accept nothing less.”

Fundraising, Michael Steele, RNC, Reince Priebus