By Greg Giroux, CQ Staff

The Republican National Committee (RNC) raised $20 million in April, the first full month in which Arizona Sen. John McCain campaigned as the presumed GOP presidential nominee.

The RNC’s April take, which it disclosed in a report it filed Tuesday to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), was the most it has raised in any month in the 2007-08 election cycle. Its partisan counterpart, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), reported raising $4.8 million in April — less than one-fourth of the RNC’s receipts. The DNC has raised less than the RNC in each of the 16 months this election cycle.

The RNC began April with nearly $41 million left to spend, compared to $4.4 million cash-on-hand for the DNC, the FEC reports said.

Democratic officials expect fundraising at the DNC will pick up substantially once their party’s presidential nomination is settled. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton have dominated fundraising among presidential candidates in either party.

The RNC also outperformed the DNC in fundraising throughout the 2005-06 election cycle. The DNC has a smaller treasury than the DNC in part because it has spent money to hire staff in all 50 states — part of a “50 State Strategy” under DNC chairman Howard Dean to make his party more politically competitive in areas that Democrats have conceded to Republicans over the years.

The RNC’s fundraising advantage over the DNC is something of an outlier in an election cycle in which the Democrats generally are trouncing the GOP in fundraising. The strong likelihood that Democrats will increase their majorities in the House and the Senate has propelled the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to big fundraising advantages over their partisan counterpart organizations, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

The RNC spent more than $10 million in April, of which $3.5 million went for postage and $1.1 million went for telemarketing.

Republican National Committee (RNC)

• April 2008 receipts: $19.8 million

• Cycle-to-date receipts: $143.3 million

• April 2008 expenditures: $10.3 million

• Cycle-to-date expenditures: $105.8 million

• Cash, April 30: $40.6 million