The de facto reality is, this cycle, the GOP is reverting to media and robo-calling campaigns produced and implemented by a group of folks with known connections to, among other things:

1.) convicted felons, jailed for implementing dirty campaign tactics, as well as,

2.) serial violators of basic FEC regulations.

A comment from a New Jersey blog on convicted GOP felon, Allen Raymond,  author of "How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative."

"As for his three months in a Pennsylvania prison, he wrote: 'After 10 full years inside the GOP, 90 days among honest criminals wasn't really any great ordeal.' "

After nearly a year and a half into the 2008 cycle, which has seen the Democratic campaign committees generally hold a 50 percent or even 100 percent cash-on-hand advantage over their Republican counterparts, the GOP committees have finally begun to catch up (or at least the Republican National Committee has). Take a look at the latest numbers filed with the Federal Election Commission Friday:

Committee	May Receipts	May Disbursements	May Cash-on-Hand	May Debts & Obligations
DSCC (est.)	$5,920,000.00	$4,950,000.00	$38,530,000.00	$0
NRSC (est.)	$4,890,000.00	$2,700,000.00	$21,560,000.00	$0
DCCC	$6,091,737.14	$4,192,275.05	$47,174,105.00	$0
NRCC	$5,017,140.54	$5,096,869.15	$6,654,801.50	$0
DNC	$4,795,890.97	$5,263,698.72	$3,965,886.11	$6,306.93
RNC	$24,377,740.11	$11,513,030.77	$53,508,001.57	$0
Total Democrats	$16,807,628.11	$14,405,973.77	$89,669,991.11	$6,306.93
Total Republicans	$24,377,740.11	$19,309,899.92	$81,722,803.07	$0

The congressional campaign committees for the Democrats continue to hold about a 3-to-1 cash-on-hand advantage over those of the Republicans, strongly suggesting that those who believe that the two parties' efforts to control the 111th Congress will be financially on par are just not right. The Democrats' 7-to-1 advantage among House campaign committees is particularly remarkable.

Obviously the numbers from the Republican and Democratic national committees leave room for concern. The RNC is raising a huge amount of money -- no doubt in part because John McCain is soliciting contributions in amounts approaching $100,000 in value, a huge chunk of which goes to the national committee -- and the DNC isn't matching it. Yet. If you want to help eat away at that difference, head over to Act Blue today and make a contribution.

Today I made my first political donation and I couldn't be more excited about the possibility my contribution could tip the scales in even one race.  Normally I don't contribute to the political process monetarily.  I'd rather donate my time and energy.  But I feel like we have so much going for the Democratic Party that with suffiecent funding we could have some real surprise victories come November.  If you've never made a donation before or haven't so far for 2008.  I suggest you consider it, you may never have an opportunity to get so much bang for your buck.

All of the parties' political committees were required to release their monthly campaign finance details yesterday. Here is what the reports show:

Committee	April Receipts	April Disbursements	April Cash-on-Hand	April Debts & Obligations
DSCC (est.)	$4,200,000.00	$4,500,000.00	$37,600,000.00	$0
NRSC (est.)	$4,300,000.00	$2,300,000.00	$19,400,000	$0
DCCC	$5,015,425.30	$4,061,236.36	$45,274,642.96	$704,090.25
NRCC	$4,252,190.13	$4,688,146.93	$6,734,530.11	$0
DNC	$4,752,068.78	$5,630,122.78	$4,433,693.86	$31,213.84
RNC	$19,845,692.95	$10,275,411.07	$40,643,292.23	$0
Total Democrats	$13,967,494.08	$14,191,359.14	$87,308,336.82	$735,304.09
Total Republicans	$28,397,883.08	17,263,558	$66,777,822.34	$0

As you can see, this was a big fundraising month for the GOP, cutting the Democratic committees' cash-on-hand lead by about a third. This underscores the need to ensure that money continues to go into the committees -- particularly the Democratic National Committee, though presumably the DNC's fundraising issues should virtually fall away when the nominee takes over the committee -- so that the Democrats' fundraising advantage is not frittered away.

That said, let's not overlook the fact that despite the remarkable month the Republican National Committee had in April, the Democratic committees nonetheless hold a $20 million overall advantage in available money. What's more, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has close to a 7-to-1 net cash-on-hand advantage over the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee still has close to a 2-to-1 advantage in that metric over the National Republican Senatorial Committee. On top of that, Barack Obama raised in excess of 70 percent more in April than did John McCain, and Obama and Hillary Clinton combined to raise about three times as much money as McCain. So overall the financial health of the Democratic Party remains very sound.

First a big shout out to MyDD for their front page links to our coverage at Cotton Mouth of MS-01.

We are in a street fight down here.  Travis Childers has an oppurtunity to lay claim for the Democratic Party a congresssional district that voted 62% for Bush in 2004.  He is up against Republican Greg Davis who has offered nothing but vicious attack ads.  

I recently recieved my 2008 Paducah Grassroots survey from the DCCC. In it, there was a short questionaire, and a request for a renewal contribution to the DCCC. I wanted to share a little about this request, and give my own personal opinions, as well as provide my response to the DCCC.

It's the 20th of April today, so that means it's that time of the month again: Time to look at the campaign finance filings for all six of the parties' campaign committees.

Committee	March Receipts	March Disbursements	March Cash-on-Hand	March Debts & Obligations
DSCC (est.)	$8,200,000.00	N/A	$37,800,000.00	$0
NRSC (est.)	$4,200,000.00	N/A	$17,300,000	$0
DCCC	$10,110,960.72	$3,812,233.01	$44,320,511.18	$0
NRCC	$7,100,525.71	$5,064,243.78	$7,170,486.91	$0
DNC	$5,988,279.13	$5,433,437.21	$5,311,747.86	$0
RNC	$15,366,745.54	$9,296,497.49	$31,073,010.35	$0
Total Democrats	$24,299,239.85	N/A	$87,432,259.04	$0
Total Republicans	$26,667,271.25	N/A	$55,543,497.26	$0

Interestingly enough, this is actually the fourth straight month in which the three Republican campaign committees combined have managed to outraise the three Democratic campaign committees combined. Over these four months, the Republican National Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee have raised a combined $82,848,883.92 to the $72,185,156.45 raised by the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee -- better than a $10.6 million advantage.

During this time, however, the Democratic committees' net cash-on-hand advantage over the GOP committees actually grew from $28,777,997.81 at the end of November to $31,888,761.78 today. That means that over the past four months, the Republicans have effectively wasted close to $14 million -- spending that much more than the Democrats -- to little avail. The Republicans couldn't hold on to the congressional seat vacated by former Speaker of the House Denny Hastert; It looks like they're having an awfully difficult time defending the congressional seat they must defend in a special election down in Louisiana -- all of this while frittering away millions and millions of dollars.

Now is there room to grow, room for the Democrats to do a better job in the fundraising department? There's always room to do better. Specifically, it would be preferable if the DNC weren't outraised by the RNC by a $9.4 million margin. That said, all in all, the fact that the Democratic committees have close to $32 million more in the bank than the Republican committees leaves little to really complain or worry about at this juncture.

I don't think money will be a problem in our House races this year. According to Roll Call (subscriber only), the DCCC is sitting on a nice pile of cash.