Larry LaRocco, running for U.S. Senate in Idaho, is holding a LIVE online video town hall meeting at 3pm ET today.  

You can watch -- and ask your questions -- right here:

UPDATE: The live online town hall meeting is over, but video from today's town hall with Larry is embedded below:

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.

Meanwhile,
Al Gore Resurfaces for the DSCC...(Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee)

http://tinyurl.com/3m4mvz

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.

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.

Good to see a progressive has emerged in the Kentucky Democratic primary for senate. Let's help ensure that it's Greg Fischer that goes up against Mitch McConnell in the fall - Todd

[Cross-posted @ BlueGrassRoots]

I wrote a few weeks back about the necessity of finding a candidate in the Democratic Senate Primary in Kentucky who will stand up to Mitch McConnell in the fall, not one who stood beside him on endorsement platforms and at Republican fundraisers. Greg Fischer is quickly emerging as the candidate best positioned to pose a credible challenge to Sen. McConnell this fall.

In truth, many Kentucky Democrats, liberal and conservative, first turn to Greg Fischer because they cannot bring themselves to support the DSCC-anointed Bruce Lunsford--Kentucky's Ken Lay turned failed politician. While supporting Greg Fischer begins for many as a way to vote blue without needing to take a shower afterwards, Fischer's status as default alternative is fading in the race as he tours the state and delivers a compelling message of change. People are beginning to turn to Greg for Greg, instead of simply turning away from Lunsford.

Well, it's the 20th of the month, so that means it's time to take a peak into the finances of the two parties three main fundraising arms -- the main party committee and the committees for each house of Congress.

Committee	February Receipts	February Disbursements	February Cash-on-Hand	February Debts & Obligations
DSCC (est.)	$4,800,000.00	$2,500,000.00	$32,800,000.00	$500,000.00
NRSC (est.)	$3,900,000.00	$1,900,000.00	$15,300,000	$0
DCCC	$6,211,397.69	$3,682,905.98	$38,021,783.47	$762,683.65
NRCC	$4,554,667.86	$5,090,460.12	$5,134,204.98	$1,900,000
DNC	$6,288,340.07	$4,550,737.89	$4,756,905.94	$2,500,000.00
RNC	$10,601,168.37	$7,366,486.82	$25,002,762.30	$0
Total Democrats	$17,299,737.76	$10,733,643.87	$75,578,689.41	$3,762,683.65
Total Republicans	$19,055,836.23	$14,356,946.94	$45,436,967.28	$1,900,000

A few things are worth noting out of these numbers. First, the Democratic committees have better than a $28 million net cash-on-hand advantage over their GOP rivals. This works out to a rather remarkable 65 percent advantage just nine months out from election day. Would it be preferable to see the Democratic National Committee do as well as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, both nominally and relatively? No doubt. But these numbers, along with the numbers from presidential and congressional candidates alike, show that overall the Democratic Party as a whole is on extremely strong footing at this point.

Looking a little more narrowly, the DCCC appears to have successfully head faked the National Republican Congressional Committee into spending way too much money on its losing effort in the special election in Illinois 14th congressional district, which was vacated by former House Speaker Denny Hastert. Over the month of February, the NRCC, which already trailed the DCCC by about $30 million in net cash-on-hand, spent 38 percent more than the DCCC while raising 27 percent less. Combined with the hundreds of thousands of dollars the committee believed it had but in fact didn't, the financial situation at the NRCC probably could not get worse.

Finally, one cannot leave out the DSCC, which has better than a net 2-to-1 cash-on-hand advantage over the National Republican Senatorial Committee. With the DSCC on offense in well over half a dozen races -- and perhaps even a dozen or more -- the situation over at the NRSC is fairly dire, as well.