Independent Expenditures: Our newest weekly roundup of independent expenditures made by the "Big Four" House groups (the DCCC, House Majority PAC, NRCC, and Congressional Leadership Fund) is now available for you to pore over. Over the last week, these organizations dumped in another $41 million into House races nationwide, with $18.6 million from Democrats and $22.3 million from Republicans. You can see these newest expenditures in columns N through V in our spreadsheet.
For the most part, the major groups continued to spend in races where they'd already done so. The one notable exception came in Florida's 18th, where reports last week said the DCCC was newly getting involved (so far, they've spent $307,000). Now the NRCC is following suit, with a reported $650,000 ad buy, though that hasn't yet shown up in their independent expenditure filings. (See our separate FL-18 item for more.) The House majority PAC also began spending modest amounts (between $53,000 and $61,000) in three other Republican-held districts (Indiana's 9th, Ohio's 7th, and Texas' 21st) on mailers.
Meanwhile, the district with the most new spending over the last week was California's 25th, with $2.4 million in total. $2.1 million of which was from CLF, the single-largest Republican expenditure. The biggest Democratic spending spree came in Florida's 26th, where HMP spent $1.1 million.
You can also find a summary of all spending to date in columns D through L. The seat that's seen the biggest flood of money so far is Washington's open 8th District in the Seattle area. Overall, the two Republican groups have outspent the two Democratic groups $128 million to $92 million, but don't fret. Democratic candidates have vastly outraised their Republican counterparts, and importantly, campaigns are entitled by law to much cheaper ad rates than outside organizations. So for the NRCC and CLF to make up the difference in candidate fundraising, they have to spend far more—and even then, they may not be making up the gap.