Democrats Gain in 3rd-Quarter Cash

On the cusp of potentially historic gains in the Senate, Democratic candidates enjoyed a fundraising surge this summer, headed into the final weeks of the campaign season.

In seven of the nine races in which they have a good opportunity to seize GOP-held seats, Democratic Senate candidates raised more money in the third quarter than their Republican opponents, including a few cases in which the Democrat outraised incumbent opponents by 2 to 1, according to new reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

All nine Republicans, however, eight of whom are incumbents, held an advantage in cash available at the end of September, leaving them positioned to fight a political tide that has been running in the Democrats' direction.

With their eyes fixed on the possibility of picking up nine seats and a filibuster-proof majority of 60 seats, Senate Democrats have ramped up their fundraising efforts with a flurry of pitches from the party's biggest luminaries, including former president Bill Clinton and presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

"Imagine what we can accomplish with a filibuster-proof Democratic Senate majority -- we have never been so close to achieving it. Even as little as $5 from you can make a huge difference for the future," Obama, the party's presidential nominee, wrote yesterday in an e-mail on behalf of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Rebecca Fisher, spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said that the larger cash-on-hand figures for GOP incumbents showed that they had strategically prepared for the stretch run, allowing themselves time to appear before voters instead of raising money.

"They've been running for their lives since January '07. They've known this was going to be a tough election cycle," Fisher said.

Democrats now control 49 seats and have the consistent backing of two independents in the chamber. At least two seats of retiring Republicans, in Virginia and New Mexico, have been essentially abandoned by national Republicans. All 12 incumbent Democrats up for reelection are considered safe, say strategists in both parties and independent analysts. Democrats last held 60 Senate seats in 1978.

The DSCC outraised the NRSC $103 million to $67.7 million through August, and it is on the air with heavy television buys in all nine of the most hotly contested races. The GOP committee is on air in just six states.

As their races grew tighter this summer, even some Democratic challengers once considered long-shots raised more money than the incumbents, including former state representative Jim Martin (D-Ga.), who raised $1.3 million while Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) raised $1.1 million. Because he was a relative unknown, Martin burned through his cash quickly, leaving him with less than $100,000 on hand as of Sept. 30. Chambliss had more than $1.2 million in reserve for the final five weeks of the campaign.