ANALYSIS — First-quarter fundraising totals once again demonstrate that Senate candidates are raising dramatically more in races compared with just 20 years ago, with candidates in top-tier Senate races now closer to spending what presidential candidates used to spend in the early 2000s.
The growth has been incremental, but the result is that we’re effectively desensitized to the amount of money being spent to capture control of the Senate.
Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown announced he raised $12 million in the first three months of this year for his reelection race in Ohio. That’s close to the $12.9 million Republican Richard Burr spent on his entire 2004 campaign to win a competitive open seat in North Carolina. That same cycle, Republican John Thune spent less than $15 million total to knock off Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle that cycle in South Dakota.
