Romney Looks to Wisconsin Avenue to Help Afford His Election

In the midst of what is inarguably the worst week of the Romney campaign, the name of our historic district has peppering the articles extolling the debt of the Romney campaign. Tuesday night the National Review Online reported the $20 million loan taken by the Romney camp from the Bank of Georgetown. Confirmed by a senior campaign official, the loan addressed the problem of pre-nomination Federal Election Commission rules.

As the primary election donation dollars supporting Romney began to dry up, the Romney campaign found themselves an opportunity to borrow quick cash from the Bank of Georgetown. The official and unofficial expenses of the Republican National Convention itself totaled to over $55 million, and though the Romney campaign continued to boastfully out fund President Obama, the presumed nominee took advantage of the line of credit it held at the Bank of Georgetown.

“We took advantage of the law as it exists to secure this line of credit,” a senior Romney aide said in an exclusive National Review Online interview. “We realized that we could collateralize this debt with $20 million of general election funds that were already sitting in our bank account.”

While Romney has now paid back $9 million of the loan, the news of the federal election report depicting the campaign in a debt of $15 million comes after the slight lead in fundraising by the Democratic National Committee and Obama’s re-election campaign. Last month, Romney raised $111.6 million, coming just under Obama’s $114 million.

As the official nominee, Romney will now undoubtedly have little difficulty allaying doubts about the financial status of his campaign for election. Yet as headlines spell out doom and the need for a re-boot on the campaign, perhaps the Romney campaign may find itself returning to our neighborhood bank once more.