In Close House Races, GOP Incumbents Hold Advantage in Funds

"We knew that we were never going to have as much money as a 10-year incumbent," said Jason Burke, Yarmuth's campaign manager. Still, he said, the Yarmuth campaign has enough to advertise intensively through Election Day.

Northup's campaign said her cash advantage amounts to a powerful wall against Yarmuth's candidacy.

"Especially in a media market like Louisville, it's quite expensive to get your message out," said Patrick Neely, Northup's campaign manager. "Having a 3 to 1 financial advantage clearly better enables you to drive your message out, to get your voters to the polls, and to do all the things you need to do to win on Election Day."

The NRCC memo also noted that Republican Peter Roskam has an almost 7 to 1 cash advantage over Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth (D) in Illinois's 6th District, and that Republican Reps. Geoff Davis (Ky.) and E. Clay Shaw Jr. (Fla.) enjoy advantages of about 4 to 1 over their challengers.

The memo played down the cash disadvantages of two Republicans -- Mike Whalen in Iowa and Rep. Charles H. Taylor in North Carolina -- because they are millionaires who can fund their campaigns.

What's more, in Ohio's 18th District, where Rep. Robert W. Ney (R) is stepping down after his guilty plea in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, Republican Joy Padgett has more cash on hand than Democrat Zack Space -- $258,000 to $146,000.

Still, some Democrats in tough contests are financially outrunning GOP incumbents who are not self-funding. As of Sept. 30, Brad Ellsworth had about 50 percent more money at the ready than Rep. John N. Hostettler (R-Ind.), and Joseph A. Sestak Jr. had about 38 percent more cash than Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.).

In the 12 open-seat races that the Cook Political Report labels as close, Democrats had $5.7 million on hand and Republicans had $4.4 million.

The parties are scheduled to release their financial reports at the end of the week. At summer's end, the Republican and Democratic House campaign committees had similar amounts in the bank -- $36 million for the GOP committee and $34.9 million for the Democrats'. The Republican National Committee held an edge of nearly 4 to 1 over the Democratic National Committee in cash on hand -- $39.3 million to $10.9 million, as of Aug. 30.

That disparity at the national committee level -- if it remains about the same -- would give the GOP an additional benefit in the closing days of the campaign.

But Democrats are hoping that the national political environment, which has been hostile to the GOP lately, will mean that they will not need to raise comparable sums to be in the running this fall.

"It's not about total dollars," said Stu Rothenberg, author of a respected political newsletter, the Rothenberg Political Report. "In a wave election like this one, money isn't as important as mood and momentum -- as long as the challenger has enough money to be relevant."

Democrats are hoping such intangibles will hold sway.

"Everyone knew the GOP would be well funded," said Bill Burton, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "The question is how big does the Republican cash advantage have to be in order to convince voters that they somehow, all of a sudden, actually want to hold on to the status quo in Washington?"