Incumbents out-raising challengers in 3 hot House races in state

Incumbents have out-raised challengers in at least three hot congressional races in California, reports filed tonight with the Federal Election Commission show.

Rep. Scott Peters (D-San Diego) reported raising a total of $3.391 million for his campaign. His Republican challenger, former Councilman Carl DeMaio, brought in $2.691 million. Each candidate raised more than half a million of their amount during the three-month reporting period that ended Sept. 30.

They were almost neck-and-neck in terms of what they had left to spend: $808,000 for Peters and almost $792,000 for DeMaio.

In a Central Valley race, the fundraising of Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford) outpaced that of Democratic challenger Amanda Renteria, nearly $2.6 million to $1.4 million. He also reported having more than twice as much cash on hand as she did at the end of the reporting period.

In Riverside County, Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Palm Desert) far outdistanced his Republican challenger, Assemblyman Brian Nestande, also of Palm Desert. Ruiz reported raising a total of $3.1 million to Nestande’s $1.1 million and had $1.6 million cash on hand to Nestande’s not quite $136,000.

Those numbers don’t include the vast sums the major political parties and other interest groups are spending outside the campaigns to oppose or support candidates in battleground districts.

And candidates hardly have time to savor their hauls -- the next fundraising reporting deadline is just around the corner.

Contributors, analysts and others look at fundraising as a key indicator of a campaign’s viability.

Follow @jeanmerl for the latest in Southern California politics news.