DFL has fundraising advantage, for now

With less than six weeks to go before the Nov. 4 election, the newest fundraising reports show where the candidates stand in the final stretch of some hotly contested races. Here's a look at some of the key money questions.

How important are the races for seats in the Minnesota Legislature?

Republicans need to win seven seats currently held by Democrats to take control of the House. If they manage to win those seats, that would make it a lot harder for Gov. Mark Dayton to pass his second-term priorities, assuming he wins the governor's race.

The fundraising numbers underscore just how important these seats are to both sides.

The House DFL Caucus has about $1.5 million to spend between now and Election Day, and the House GOP has about $633,000. Already, both sides have dumped a total of nearly $300,000 into mailers and ads for just a few races.

How much money is being spent by outside groups?

The governor's race is attracting a lot of dollars.

The liberal group Alliance for a Better Minnesota has pumped $1.8 million so far into ads supporting Dayton and opposing GOP challenger Jeff Johnson.

But more groups, including the Democratic and Republican parties and a number of these outside organizations, are interested in the Minnesota House. The parties and their allies have put at least $688,000 into media buys in House races.

Meanwhile, a national group called the Republican State Leadership Committee says it's likely to put some money into Minnesota House races in the last 30 days of the election. It's not clear yet how much.

Which House districts are seeing the most spending?

Those are the districts where Democrats have a tenuous hold on their district, or where Mitt Romney won in 2012 — and in some cases, both.

About $45,000 has been spent so far by the parties and their allies on media to defend or attack Minnetonka DFLer Yvonne Selcer.

Other key races include DFL Rep. Will Morgan's in Burnsville and DFL Rep. Barb Yarusso's district near Shoreview.

How much have the state parties raised and where are they putting their money?

The Minnesota DFL has more than $620,000 going into the final weeks of the election. Meanwhile, the Minnesota Republican Party has about $260,000.

The Minnesota DFL Party is doing a lot of media spending for their candidates — known as "independent expenditures" in the world of campaign finance because they aren't coordinated with the candidates.

But so far there have been fewer independent expenditures on the Republican side.

State Republican party chair Keith Downey said the party is putting a stronger focus on enhancing what GOP leaders call their ground game. That means 18 offices to support candidates around the state, door-knocking and get out the vote efforts.

How much have the candidates for governor been able to raise?

Democrats have the advantage here.

Mark Dayton has about $1.7 million in the bank right now. His Republican opponent Jeff Johnson has about half that.

Both may be a little short at the moment because Dayton and Johnson just released their first television advertisements of the general election and those aren't cheap.

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