Campaigns Set For TV Finale

"We don't need another congressman in jail," the ad warns.

Campaign strategists rushed to book a final wave of TV ads before the weekend. A look at financial reports filed yesterday with the Federal Election Commission showed that, on Wednesday alone, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent $12.4 million on advertising in 36 districts; the National Republican Congressional Committee spent $5.9 million on commercials in 17 districts.

The expenditures by the two committees are reflective of their overall strategies. Republicans are largely focusing their resources on the campaigns of incumbents facing surprisingly tough reelection races, in hopes of building a wall against a massive wave that could see Democrats pick up 25 or more House seats.

The Democrats must pick up at least 15 seats to win control of the House and six to win control of the Senate.

On Wednesday, the NRCC spent more than $2 million on ads for three endangered Republicans in the Philadelphia media market. The committee spent nearly $750,000 on behalf of Rep. David G. Reichert in Washington's 8th District and an additional $445,000 in Sodrel's Indiana district.

The DCCC, by contrast, is spending the bulk of its money on offensive opportunities. Its largest expenditure -- $1.3 million -- was made on behalf of Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth, who is running against state Sen. Peter J. Roskam (R) for Illinois' open 6th Congressional District seat. The district is covered by the Chicago media market -- one of the most expensive in the country.

The Democratic committee plunked down $718,000 on behalf of former congressman Ken Lucas, who is trying to unseat Rep. Geoff Davis (R) in northern Kentucky's 4th District, and $673,000 in Arizona's 5th District, where Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R) is trying to fend off a tougher-than-expected challenge from former Tempe mayor Harry Mitchell (D). Mitchell recently won the endorsement of the Arizona Republic newspaper, which had endorsed Hayworth in each of his past six runs for Congress but this time referred to him as a "bully."

Republican Party committees appear to have depleted much of their cash advantage, making it likely they will face tough decisions in the campaign's final days, according to the Campaign Finance Institute, a nonpartisan research group.

Between Oct. 19 and Nov. 1, national Republican committees reported spending $50 million to support House and Senate candidates, compared with $38 million spent by Democratic Party committees over the same 14 days.

Usually, the number of competitive districts goes down during a campaign's final weeks. This year, the number of competitive House seats went up. "As a result," the institute said, "the parties either have to give up on some races to concentrate their resources, or spread their resources more thinly than they had planned. This is a problem for both parties, but particularly for the Republicans, who are playing defense to save embattled incumbents."

With resources thinning, control of the Senate continues to teeter on the outcome of races in three states: Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia.

Missouri continues to be the truest of tossups, with internal tracking polls for both parties showing the race between Sen. James M. Talent (R) and state Auditor Claire McCaskill (D) within a percentage point or two. Democrats are feeling increasingly optimistic about Virginia as they believe former Navy secretary James Webb (D) is overtaking Sen. George Allen (R).

The biggest disagreement between the two sides comes in Tennessee, where Republicans spent the day touting a poll by Zogby International that showed former Chattanooga mayor Bob Corker (R) opening a substantial lead over Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr. (D), 53 percent to 43 percent. Later, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released a poll of its own that showed Ford in the lead, 46 percent to 40 percent.

Staff writer Jeffrey H. Birnbaum contributed to this report.