House and Senate campaign fundraising through June

Candidates for the U.S. Senate and U.S. House in 2010 reported raising a total of $250.3 million from January 1 through June 30, 2009, according to disclosure reports filed with the Commission. Candidates seeking election to 36 U.S. Senate seats reported raising $93.2 million during the first six months of 2009. Democratic Senate candidates raised $54.1 million, while Republicans raised $39.1 million. Candidates for the U.S. House reported raising $157.1 million in the first six months of this year, with Democrats raising $97.5 million and Republicans raising $59.6 million.

Senate candidates

The $93.2 million that 70 individual Senate campaign committees raised in 2009 was the highest total ever reported for the first six months in a non-election year, surpassing the previous high of $84.8 million raised in the first half of 2007. In 2003, the last time this same group of Senate seats was up for election, 63 candidates raised $75.6 million during the first six months of the cycle. However, there are two additional open seats this election cycle due to the vacancies created by the Senate resignations of Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

From January 1 through June 30, 2009, contributions from individuals accounted for $65 million, or 70 percent of the total Senate candidates raised. Political action committee (PAC) contributions to Senate candidates totaled $20.1 million, representing 22 percent of the campaigns' receipts.

Senate candidates ended the first six months of 2009 with $150.8 million cash-on-hand and debts of $2.9 million, some from previous elections.

House Candidates

Campaign finance reports filed by House candidates for the period January 1 through June 30, 2009, show 416 House incumbents with combined receipts of $132 million, a $7.6 million decrease from the same period in 2007. Individual contributions accounted for $63.6 million of House incumbents' total receipts while contributions from PACs amounted to $64.2 million, in the first half of 2009. From January 1 through June 30 of this year, 250 incumbent Democrats raised $85.9 million, while 166 incumbent Republicans raised $46.1 million. Democratic members reported a combined $147 million cash-on-hand total at the end of the reporting period, and Republicans reported $78.2 million.

The median receipts for Democratic House incumbents were $273,576, up from $268,072 in the first six months of 2007. For Republican members, the median receipts this year were $226,824, down from $242,012 in 2007. An equal number of candidates had receipts above and below these median values.

Receipts for the 38 Democratic House freshmen totaled $18.6 million, while the 25 Republican freshmen reported receipts of $8.5 million. Democratic freshmen had median receipts of $509,573, while the median for Republican freshmen was $371,052.

Non-incumbents raised a total of $25.1 million for House races during the first six months of 2009, with 94 Democrats raising $11.6 million and 146 Republicans raising $13.5 million. In the same period in 2007, 135 Democrats raised $16.3 million and 94 Republicans raised $8.3 million.

For additional information, the full text of the Commission's press release is available at https://www.fec.gov/updates/2010-congressional-candidates-raise-over-250-million-in-first-half-of-2009-senate-candidates-raise-record-amount-for-period/.