Though Republicans frequently chide the Obama administration for spending and debt, the Republican National Committee itself faces its own cashflow problems as its future chairman remains uncertain.

A Republican National Committee finance report to be released Thursday will show it to be more than $15 million in debt, according to Politico. An RNC memo to vendors that provided services in the 2010 elections said that the committee faces a “cashflow challenge,” and payments promised will be delayed until early next year. Meanwhile, a Washington Post report showed that the committee had spent $636,800 on its 2012 convention in Tampa — or eighteen times the amount spent in a similar time period four years ago.

RNC Chairman Michael Steele has not made a decision on whether to run for a second term.

The financial problems of the RNC and the fundraising prowess of candidates for the chairmanship — but not Steele himself — were the focus of a forum of several RNC candidates Wednesday at the Washington Hilton hosted by tea-party affiliated group Freedom Works.  Former Missouri GOP Chair Ann Wagner, former Michigan GOP Chair Saul Anuzis, former RNC political director Gentry Collins and Steele’s predecessor Mike Duncan attended. Only Anuzis and Wagner have officially declared their runs.

All of the candidates praised the tea party, as some of the questioners focused on tea party concerns or asked how the tea party and RNC would work together. Gentry Collins — a longtime Republican staffer who touted his work for the party — repeated several times (as did the others) that the RNC would not endorse in primaries, a position that tea party-affiliated groups share. The moderator asked all of the panelists about earmarks and mentioned the eight Republican senators who voted against the failed earmark ban for the audience to call; none of the panelists expressed a problem they had with the ban.

Other potential contenders for the chairmanship, such as former Bush administration official Maria Cino, Connecticut Republican Party Chairman Chris Healey, Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus and former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, did not attend.

The RNC chairman will be chosen by 168 members of the committee — not necessarily the same people in the crowd or watching on the internet or C-Span — days after a second debate, to be hosted by Americans for Tax Reform on January 3. In response to a question on social media and politics, Anuzis said, “I have been posting on Facebook and sending out tweets during this debate.”