Reports Show Congressional Republican Candidates With Huge Advantage

The Clark Hall for Congress Campaign and the Democratic Party of Arkansas have both been trying to make hay out of Hall raising $233 more in the fourth quarter of 2011 than Congressman Rick Crawford.  They even managed to get some press out of the spin.

Of course, that’s their jobs and I don’t fault them for being good at it, but there is more to the story when you look at the total funds raised by Congressional candidates in Arkansas for 2012.

According to the the latest reports, Arkansas Republican Congressional candidates have raised a total of over $2.5 million compared a total of a little over $138,000 by Arkansas Democratic Congressional candidates.  That’s more than an 18-to-1 advantage.

In addition, Republicans lead cash-on-hand less debt with over $1.6 million to Democrats slightly over the $100,000 mark.  This is about a 16-to-1 advantage.

In the First District, where Democrats are crowing about Hall’s fourth quarter numbers, they still trail overall due to prior fundraising from Crawford.  In total, he has raised over half a million with over $277,000 in cash, while Hall has raised about $132,000 total with around $100,000 cash-on-hand.

In the other three districts, no candidate has raised significant amounts. In fact, the only other Democratic Congressional candidate that has reported raising any money is Ken Aden in the Third district who raised about $6,500 and has a little over $500 on hand.  He faces an uphill battle in the safest Republican district in the state against incumbent Congressman Steve Womack who raised a total of over $300,000 with over $242,000 cash-on-hand.

Incumbent Congressman Tim Griffin is so far unopposed in the Second District in the primary and the general election, and is sitting on almost $455,000 in cash with almost $922,000 raised.

Down in the open Fourth District race, four Republicans have raised a total of over $800,000 with Tom Cotton leading the way with over $540,000 raised.  Combined, these candidates have well over $600,000 in cash.  Now it fair to say that they will have to spend some of this on the primary election, but so far none of the two Democratic candidates – State Sen. Gene Jeffress and D.C. Morrison – have reported raising any money.

So really all this spin on Hall’s fundraising could be a screen for how far behind the Arkansas Democrats are this year on the Congressional races.