Republican Senate Coffers Increase In May

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), the GOP Senate campaign chief for 2008, has been bleak about his party's electoral chances lately, saying that losing three Republican seats would be a good election night.

But he's still been raking in the campaign cash.

In May, the National Republican Senatorial Committee raised $4.9 million, a $600,000 increase over the May 2006 total and a $500,000 increase over last month, according to numbers provided to Politico.

All told, the NRSC is reporting $21.6 million in cash on hand, a key figure that shows how much money Ensign will have to spread around to defend 23 Republican Senate seats. The NRSC's cash on hand figure is significantly better at this point than it was in 2006, when the committee had $18.3 million at this point in the election cycle.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has not released its May fund raising figures, but those numbers should be out tomorrow. The NRSC out raised the Democratic committee in April, but the DSCC has a much larger cash on hand advantage, reporting $45.2 million in reserves at the end of April.