Michael Toner Discusses Democratic National Committee’s Election Season Debt

Michael E. Toner, co-chair of Wiley Rein’s Election Law & Government Ethics Practice, was quoted in an article published April 1 in The Wall Street Journal about the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) debt heading into the midterm elections.

According to the article, the DNC had about $15 million in debt and $7 million in cash at the end of February.  It is uncommon for the party that holds the White House to have debt this far into the next election cycle.  Mr. Toner, former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, said that a national party operating in the red for the majority of an election season is a “grand experiment.”  If Democrats end the 2014 election season with unpaid bills, Mr. Toner said, it could put the party at a disadvantage in 2016.

“It's a real roll of the dice,” Mr. Toner said.  “You’re mortgaging a future election cycle.”