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One measure of the intensity of the 2010 midterm election is that all of the major party organizations enter the next two years burdened with millions of dollars in debt even as they ramp up for presidential-year campaigns.

The Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus, officially acknowledged the bad news in a letter to supporters Monday, saying that his organization is saddled with more than $23 million in debt and less than $750,000 in cash on hand.

“We have our work cut out for us, but I am confident we will succeed in turning around the R.N.C. through hard work, transparency and honesty with our hardworking grass-roots activists and donors,” said Mr. Priebus, who recently succeeded the former chairman Michael Steele to lead the Republican Party.

The National Republican Campaign Committee, which oversees Republican House races, was $10.5 million in debt at the end of last year. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which supports Republican Senate candidates, ended the year with $6.5 million in debt.

The Democratic National Committee ended up in a better position than their counterparts. They start the year with $16 million of debt but $6 million in cash on hand.

But the two Democratic committees aimed at supporting their candidates in the House and Senate also have to pay off significant debts as they begin the 2012 campaign cycle.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has $19 million in debts after trying unsuccessfully to defend their majority in the House last year. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ended with $8.8 million in debts after succeeding in preventing a Republican takeover in the Senate.

The end-of-the-year finances for the political groups were reported to the Federal Election Commission at the end of January. Representatives from both sides sought to spin the results in their favor.

“One of the reasons we were able to beat back the Republican wave last cycle is because we outraised the other side,” said Guy Cecil, the executive director of the D.S.C.C. “Despite Republicans enjoying national momentum, we were able to amass the resources needed to wage aggressive campaigns in targeted states.”

Rob Jesmer, the executive director of the N.R.S.C. pointed out that his group came much closer to matching Democratic fund-raising in 2010 than they did in 2008.

“It’s amusing, to say the least, to see Senate Democrats cite their fund-raising as the reason they only lost seven seats when their previous fund-raising advantage was eroded by $57 million in the 2010 cycle, despite having far more senators and the fund-raiser-in-chief in the White House,” Mr. Jesmer said.

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