Dems’ Senate Campaign Unit Leaped Further Ahead in February

By Greg Giroux, CQ Staff

The fundraising efforts of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), which assists its party’s candidates in U.S. Senate races, has been a notable success story since the 2006 campaign cycle that produced a six-seat gain and a Senate majority for the Democrats. And that trend continued in February, when the DSCC outraised its partisan counterpart, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), by $4.8 million to $3.9 million, according to the campaign units’ latest reports to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

The DSCC now has raised more money than the NRSC in each of the 14 months of the 2007-08 election cycle, with an advantage in total receipts of $64.1 million to $39.3 million. And the Democrats’ edge in money left to spend on this year’s campaigns looms even larger. The DSCC began March with $32.8 million to spend, more than twice the cash on hand — $15.3 million — reported by the NRSC.

That lopsided margin will allow the DSCC to deploy vast financial sums to their bids to take over seats currently held by Republican incumbents in this year’s elections. Although the Democrats’ current operational hold on 51 seats means the Republicans need just a two-seat gain to reclaim an outright majority, the odds currently favor additional Democratic gains instead. The Republicans are defending 23 seats, five of which have been left open by retiring incumbents. The Democrats have only 12 seats in play, with all of the party’s incumbents seeking re-election.

(Continued here.)