GOP Hopefuls for House Boast Big War Chests

Republican challengers for House seats are spending nearly 70% more than GOP challengers did in 1992 campaigns, the Federal Election Commission reported Friday.

The spending increase by GOP candidates far outstrips that of Democratic challengers who are seeking to be elected to the House.

The FEC said that the median disbursement for Republican challengers was $103,200 through Oct. 19 while the median spending figure by Democratic challengers was $45,900. That’s up 8% from the spending by Democratic challengers in the 1992 House campaigns.

The median spending figure by Republican challengers in the 1992 elections was $61,100.

The latest FEC figures reflect just how well-financed Republican challengers are in 1994--a fact frequently brought up by political analysts. The current Democrat-Republican split in the House is 256 to 178.

In 46 open seat races in the House where no incumbent is running, median spending by Republican candidates rose 60% from two years ago, to $371,800. Median spending by Democrats in open-seat races rose 38% from 1992, to $355,500.

“The twin problems of Republican challengers in the past have been inadequate funding and candidates who lacked political experience; they’ve taken care of those problems this year,” said David Rohde, a professor of political science at Michigan State University.

While Republican challengers are spending more money than they did two years ago, GOP incumbents still lag behind the spending by Democratic incumbents--whose median disbursements are $375,400. Median spending by Republican incumbents is $292,300.

Overall, Senate and House candidates are on a pace to spend half a billion dollars in the 1994 elections, and so far expenditures are up nearly 20% from two years ago, the FEC reported.

Candidates in the 1992 elections were eager to raise money so that they could contend with redistricting. But fund raising for House races since then has nonetheless continued to go up--15%--to nearly $294 million.

House-Senate campaign spending through Oct. 19 is $449 million, up $71 million, a 19% increase from the same period in 1992.

Spending on House races stood at $244 million as of Oct. 19, compared to $231 million two years ago.

Senate candidates have spent $205 million, up from $147 million in 1992.