Candidates for Congress have outdone themselves when it comes to off-year fundraising for the 2008 elections. The totals amount collected during the set-up year of 2007 is 22% ahead of the amount collected in 2005 in advance of the hotly contested 2006 midterm elections. Those running for Senate, on the other hand, are down 14% — but there’s a good reason.
In the House, every seat is contested each and every election, but the Senate only puts about a third into play each election year, and each state has one out of three elections off, due to the six-year Washington stay granted each senatorial winner. And the list of states holding senatorial elections in 2006 but not this year includes quite a few on the large side. The bigger the state, the more money needed to campaign.
The list of states getting their year off includes Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin — a list weighted heavily with large localities.
The states that were quiet in 2006 but active this year features many more smaller selections: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina and South Dakota.
Here are the raw numbers: Candidates for the Senate pulled in 164.5M in 2007, compared to 187.8M in 2005. The number was even slightly down from the 2003 total of 166.6M. Democrats have pulled in 95.2M, well ahead of the Republican total of 69.2M.
Candidates for the House have blown away all records, bringing in 342.8M in 2007 compared to 279.1M in 2005. Democrats enjoy a strong edge here as well, out-earning Republicans 200.1M to 142.6M.
