WP: GOP Retains Cash Edge Over Resurgent Democrats

[DeepModem Mom]

GOP Retains Cash Edge Over Resurgent Democrats
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 28, 2006; Page A08

Democrats continued to raise large amounts of campaign cash this month, but not enough to erase the Republicans' multimillion-dollar lead.

According to the parties' latest financial disclosure statements, Democratic Party committees outraised the national GOP committees during the first 18 days of October. Riding a wave of optimism about the party's chances of gaining seats in the House and the Senate in the Nov. 7 midterm elections, the Democrats' national reelection committees collected $25.9 million in the period. The Republican committees raised $18.6 million in the same period.

In addition, three dozen or more Democrats seeking seats in the House that are occupied by Republicans raised at least $1 million in the current election cycle -- the minimum that, political experts say, would enable a challenger to mount a full-fledged election bid.

Nevertheless, the Democrats' last-minute fundraising surge was not enough to overcome the GOP's earlier fundraising advantage. The three national Republican Party committees had $17 million more cash on hand than their Democratic counterparts as of Oct. 18, according to this week's financial reports.

What's more, Republican committees spent nearly twice as much on their toughest House races than Democratic committees did. The nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute calculated that Republican committees spent $1 million on average to help each of the 35 GOP incumbents who are considered to be most in danger of losing reelection bids. Democratic committees spent an average of about $574,000 on behalf of each of the party's challengers in those races....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/27/AR2006102701517.html