The good news for the Republican Party is that its Republican National Committee (RNC) is mopping up the floor with its counterpart Democratic National Committee (DNC) so far this election cycle. And at the state and local level, it’s maintaining a slight edge. But the Senate and House committee totals are so heavily skewed in favor of the Democrats that they are sitting on a slight lead in cash raised and a much larger lead in cash on hand. At this point in the campaign cycle, Democrats have pulled in 110.5M and still have 50.9M of it in the bank, compared to Republican receipts of 108.8M and 31.8M still on hand.
Another ominous sign for the Republicans has to be the trajectory these numbers represent. In both categories, the Democratic line points skyward – looking back to 2003-2004, with receipt-to-date totals of 56.4M to 86.3M to the present 110.5M total. The Republican line is more of a droopy bell curve with the droop decidedly unfavorable. It starts at 139.1M, rises slightly to 142.7M and then drops precipitously to the current 108.8M.
Gains among Democratic receipts over the 2005-2006 cycle were not enough to cover the drop in Republican receipts, so total cash on hand is down from last time. This may in part be due to donation siphoning from the large number of presidential campaigns competing for cash. Between them, they now have 82.7M to spend.
In terms of cash on hand, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) holds a huge 19.5M to 2M over the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) has two times the firepower of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) with 20.4M compared to 10.2M.
