WASHINGTON — The private rooms at Carmine’s, a large Italian restaurant downtown, have been hopping with political donors at lunch this week. It is a month to Election Day, and House and Senate candidates are searching far from home for last-minute campaign cash.
This year, the pool of national donors is favoring Republicans, reversing the advantage Democratic candidates have held for two elections.
The numbers are especially noticeable in open-seat races. In the Senate’s 14 contests where there is no incumbent, Republican candidates hold a 2-1 advantage in money raised outside their own states, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. In the 42 races for open House seats, Republican out-of-state money nearly matches that of Democrats.
GOP candidates’ success in tapping into a universe of distant contributors highlights this year’s shift in the political terrain as Republicans seek to capture control of Congress by capitalizing on a weak economic recovery and voter anger over some of President Barack Obama’s policies.
This GOP financial edge is in the limited contributions candidates are permitted to raise — no more than $2,400 per election from each individual and $5,000 from political action committees. The out-of-state money comes both from Internet appeals and from traditional Republican and conservative donors in Washington and in such states as Virginia, Texas and Florida.
“It’s always a good idea to raise the preponderance of your money in-state,” said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the Senate fundraising arm of the Republican Party. “But I think people understand that while these are state-by-state races, the impact is national.”
Because incumbents typically get more out-of-state money than challengers, open seats offer a better gauge of the parties’ relative fundraising abilities.
And out-of-state donors have not been as generous to Democrats in open-seat races this year as they have been in the past.
While Republican open-seat candidates’ contributions have remained steady at about $2 of every $10 raised, Democrats have dropped from about a third of their money coming from out-of state to less than a quarter.
