G.O.P. Gains Big Fund-Raising Advantage

From The New York Times:

The Republican National Committee has amassed a significant fund-raising advantage, according to campaign finance records filed Wednesday, feeding Democrats’ fears about remaining competitive in the intense final weeks before the midterm elections.

The Democrats’ House and Senate campaign committees have been unusually successful raising money compared with past election cycles. House Democrats have nearly as much as Republicans, while Senate Democrats have $10 million more than their Republican counterparts.

But that edge is being offset by the fund-raising of the Republican National Committee, which has said it would spend more than $60 million to make up for any shortcoming by the party’s Congressional committees.

The new fund-raising reports show that at the beginning of September, Republicans had $39 million in the bank, compared with $11 million for Democrats.

The disparity is caused by the decision of the Democratic National Committee chairman, Howard Dean, to take a longer view of turning around the party by devoting most of the money he has raised to rebuilding state organizations across the country. Last week, the committee said it would provide $12 million to finance voter turnout efforts, only $2.6 million of which would be directed toward House campaigns, a point of bitter contention among Democrats and relief among Republicans.

“The advantage that we have is based on the fact that because we all work together, we’ve been able to be more strategic and our dollars will go further,” said Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee. “We’ve been building our turnout operation since 2005.”