There's a piece today in the Washington Times clearly intended to rally the flagging spirits of the right.

White House political strategist Karl Rove yesterday confidently predicted that the Republican Party would hold the House and the Senate in next month's elections, dismissing fallout from the sex scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley. [...]

But Mr. Rove said Republican candidates still hold a huge cash edge over Democrats, which will give them clout in the final three weeks of the campaign.[...]

"For most Americans, particularly the marginal voters who are going to determine the outcome of the election, it started a couple weeks ago," he said. "Between now and the election, we will spend $100 million in target House and Senate races in the next 21 days."

Let's head on over to OpenSecrets and take a look at the money situation. Numbers were just released today, so now's a good time to do that anyway. The source for all numbers is here.

Republican Party (total cash on hand): $118,007,625, total raised YTD: $506,387,478
Democratic Party (total cash on hand): $90,798,797, total raised YTD: $385,391,097

RNC (total cash on hand): $39,302,454, spent YTD: $160,445,040
DNC (total cash on hand): $10,929,533, spent YTD: $97,867,894

NRCC (total cash on hand): $36,019,485, spent YTD: $90,553,671
DCCC (total cash on hand): $34,867,692, spent YTD: $52,952,556

NRSC (total cash on hand): $18,602,642, spent YTD: $51,632,955
DSCC (total cash on hand): $29,775,182, spent YTD: $51,839,262

Looking at funds raised, spent and on hand for actual candidates, the global picture looks roughly comparable to the national scene. Democratic House candidates (there are 415) have collectively raised $294,261,013, with cash on hand of $139,159,816; on the other side, the numbers are $329,304,333 raised, $166,982,102 on hand, for 341 candidates. Data nugget: the republican advantage is entirely due to PAC money; receipts from individuals - $173,004,704 for Democrats, $172,591,746 for republicans – even give us a slight advantage.

What's interesting is that the cash expenditures of the other side haven't yet produced a measurable advantage for them; to date, they have spent over $380 million in this election cycle – and look where they are in the polls. By contrast, Democrats have spent a bit over $294 million, and if the election were held today, we'd win both houses of Congress.

The republicans clearly have the ability to spend $100 million (and more); the good news is that we can commit $90 million. That's nine dollars for every ten of theirs, not an insurmountable lead, and more favorable than the money ratio for the year to date, $380 million to $294 million.

It's unwise to discount the role of money in politics, certainly when it is wielded by someone as subtle and ruthless as Rove. But the fact is that despite Rove's bluster, we're in better financial shape than he should be comfortable with, in an issue environment that favors us, at a stage in the political cycle that favors the opposition party, with the head of the other party scraping near historic approval ratings lows, and with a more energized base on our side.

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