The following story is from our sister site SouthernPoliticalReport.com
Democratic candidates brought in more money than Republicans in seven of the nine congressional races that are likely to be competitive this fall, continuing a pattern that has prevailed since early last year. In one race, in Florida’s 2nd District, Democratic challenger Gwen Graham has brought in more money than the Republican incumbent, US Rep. Steve Southerland. The Democratic nominees have also more cash on hand in the three open districts currently held by GOPers – AR2, AR4 and VA10. And the two vulnerable Democratic incumbents on the list, US Reps. Joe Garcia (TX) and John Barrow (GA), both have more cash than their GOP challengers.
The stand-out from this pattern, as he was last year, is US Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY), who substantially out-raised his Democratic opponent.
Some of the difference is due to the fact that several Republican nominees had to finance primary campaigns before they could pile up cash for the General Election. This was true in both Arkansas districts, as well as in GA12 NC2, TX23 and VA10. One prominent Democrat, entertainer Clay Aiken in NC2, also had to spend heavily in a primary campaign.
The war chests raised by the candidates are only part of the major money that will be spent on the campaigns. Both of the parties’ congressional campaign committees, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), have reserved television time for a number of the candidates, and will likely expand the number of the districts and the amount of money they spend to help their nominees before the campaign ends.
In addition, Super-PACs and independent expenditure committees will be putting money into a number of these campaigns.
For now, however, the Democrats are in better financial shape in Dixie’s competitive congressional races than the Republicans.
2nd Quarter Federal Election Commission reports
Total rec’d On hand TV/buy**
AR2 (Little Rock)
French Hill/R $1,279,000 $ 468,000
Patrick Henry Hays/D 879,000 621,000 $625,000
AR4 (Texarkana)
Bruce Westerman/R 489,000 179,000
James Lee Witt/D 834,000 396,000
FL2 (Tallahassee)
Rep. Steve Southerland/R 1,980,000 1,395,000 900,000
Gwen Graham/D 2,354,000 1,575,000 785,000
FL26 (Miami)
Rep. Joe Garcia/D 2,732,000 1,862,000 970,000
Carlos Curbalo/R* 1,260,000 884,000 1,400,000
GA12 (Augusta)
Rep. John Barrow/D 2,369,000 1,871,000 1,160,000
Rick Allen/R 1,219,000 226,000 800,000
KY6 (Lexington)
Rep. Andy Barr/R 2,083,000 1,367,000
Elizabeth Jensen/D 637,000 234,000
NC2 (Southern Pines)
Rep. Renee Ellmers/R 1,306,000 405,000
Clay Aiken/D 687,000 209,000
TX23 (Between San Antonio & El Paso)
Rep. Pete Gallego/D 1,656,000 814,000 940,000
William Hurd/R 719,000 151,000
VA10 (Loudoun County)
Barbara Comstock/R 1,372,000 576,000 2,800,000
John Foust/D 1,481,000 1,126,000 2,800,000
*Curbelo appears to the leader in the August 26 primary
** TV buys reserved by the NRCC to help GOP candidates, by the DCCC to help Democrats. These were not reported by the FEC, but taken from NRCC & DCCC press releases.
