Democrats, GOP Set a Record for Fund-Raising: $800 Million

The Republican and Democratic national committees together have raised more than $800 million in the run-up to next week's midterm congressional elections -- a record amount for a nonpresidential election year, according to documents tallied and released by the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday.

As in past years, the Republican National Committee has raised more money than the Democrats in the two contribution categories. These are "hard money" -- donations that are limited by federal law -- and "soft money" -- the unlimited contributions from unions, corporations and wealthy individuals that will be banned after the Tuesday elections.

The FEC documents, which track contributions from Jan. 1, 2001, through Oct. 16, show that the Republicans raised a total of $289 million in hard money -- more than twice the $127.4 million in these funds contributed to the Democrats. The Republicans also led in soft-money receipts: $221.7 million, compared with $199.6 million for the Democrats.

The soft-money tallies set a record, exceeding even the totals for the 2000 presidential election.

Those contributions to national political parties will be illegal after next week's elections under the campaign reform measure that President Bush signed into law earlier this year.

--Mark Fineman