Georgia Republicans have dominated the political landscape over the past decade, but the party apparatus ended 2016 more indebted than when the year began.
End-of-the-year reports filed Friday showed the Georgia Republican Party has roughly $84,000 in the bank and owes $317,000. That’s up from $231,000 owed at the end of 2015.
The party pulled in $720,000 in donations during the final few months of the year, but $500,000 of that came from the Republican National Committee.
Election victors are usually in the pole position to refill their campaign coffers after the votes. And Georgia Republicans have had a string of successes, sweeping every statewide office in 2010 and 2014, cementing U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s victory and delivering Donald Trump a 5-point win in November.
And yet the party’s financial fortunes have fallen since 2010, when it had about $2 million in the bank. And while the bank account has recovered from a nadir of just $11,403 in December 2015, some Republican officials are raising sharp questions, particularly those who are running for party chairman this year.
The last report filed by the state Democratic Party did not show that it had any debt.
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