According to the Federal Election Commission, off-year fundraising for US congressional candidates was robust in 2003, missing the 400M mark by a mere 10M. This time, however, the 400M threshold was passed in a walk, with the total closer to a new benchmark than to the freshly-broken barrier. 470.3M is the total, with 280.1M attributed to candidates for the House, a gain of 25.4% over 2003. The surge was credited to Democratic candidates, who picked up 35% to 122M. Nevertheless, as a group they still lagged behind the Republicans, who did some growing of their own - - 18% to 157.1M. Senate spending was also up, gaining 14% to 190.2M. The FEC stipulates, however, that Senate comps are not apples to apples, since not all states are involved in a given year. Differences in state size loom large in totals. So to does the number of highly competitive races, which inflate the total when there are many and deflates it when they are scarce. Following are totals from the FEC for off-year congressional campaign fundraising going back to 1987.

Off-year congressional campaign fundraising

Year	Receipts	Disbursements	Cash on Hand
2005	$470.30	$217.20	$451.80
2003	$390.10	$187.20	$374.60
2001	$294.90	$137.50	$286.50
1999	$318.40	$142.30	$285.10
1997	$232.80	$112.10	$207.20
1995	$184.90	$96.50	$141.70
1993	$170.70	$102.50	$121.40
1991	$159.90	$89.50	$159.70
1989	$128.10	$70.80	$129.10
1987	$111.50	$58.60	$108.90

Source: Federal Election Commission