RNC has extra $21 million for presidential nominee to spend

When the GOP primaries finally do come to a close, the RNC will have a nice wrap-up gift on hand for the eventual nominee: an extra $21 million to spend.

The RNC announced Thursday that it has fully funded its Presidential Trust, a fund that can be spent in direct coordination with the eventual Republican nominee’s campaign. Those coordinated expenditures are capped by the Federal Election Commission at $21 million for the 2012 cycle

“With a fully-funded trust, we stand ready on day one once we have a presumptive nominee. We will continue to build our battleground state Victory Programs and our voter identification and turnout operations to ensure we are victorious on Election Day,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement.

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin led fundraising for the general election fund; upon reaching the $21 million goal, he announced his endorsement of former Gov. Mitt Romney on Friday.

The $21 million will be used for coordination television ads and direct mail, according to RNC spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski. Those ads would end with authorizations from both the candidate and the RNC. Party committees can also independently spend money on voter outreach, field operations and ads not directly coordinated with the campaigns; that spending is not subject to any caps.

Romney, should he get the nomination, will be leaning heavily on the RNC’s ground game to compete with the field program already being assembled by President Obama’s campaign.

For its part, the Democratic National Committee, which has been jointly fundraising with Obama’s re-election effort, did not designate a specific name for its pool of funds to be used on coordinated ads. But a spokesperson said the group, which has raised $131 million this cycle, intends to spend the full $21 million as allowed by the FEC.

Original source: RNC has extra $21 million for presidential nominee to spend