In a couple of stories in today's paper, reporters for The Hill report that fundraising among Congressional Dems is improving these days. To begin, Alexander Bolton takes a look at the upper chamber.

Democratic senators have contributed far more from their personal campaign accounts to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) than Republicans have given its GOP counterpart, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), fundraising reports due out today show.

The numbers reveal that the Senate Democratic campaign’s money effort, under Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), has leapt ahead of its GOP counterpart both in its fundraising rate and in terms of cash on hand. That is a sharp turnaround from the equivalent stage of the 2004 election cycle, when the Republicans had raised $14.5 milllion and had $5.3 million on hand while the Democrats had raised $10.8 million and had $2.6 million left in the bank.

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The figures reflect the fact that Senate Democrats have outraised Republicans in the first six months of this year, despite GOP control of the Senate. Usually, the majority party has a marked fundraising advantage because it controls the legislative agenda.

Through June, the DSCC had raised $22.6 million while the NRSC had raised $20.9 million, say officials from both committees.

More significant than the Democrats’ $1.7 million advantage is that they now have $15.2 million on hand after the first six months of the year, while Republicans have $8 million.

In the House, Josephine Hearn writes that though the Democrats are not beating their GOP rivals, they have improved from the first term.

The Frontline Democrat program, a fundraising operation for the House’s 10 most vulnerable Democrats, nearly matched its Republican counterpart in fundraising for the second quarter, overcoming a much poorer showing in the first quarter, according to recently filed Federal Election Commission reports.

Democrats raised an average of $339,000 for each of the Frontline members, just short of the Republican average of $361,000. Last quarter, the Frontline program raised just less than $200,000 per member, compared with a much more robust Republican average of $390,000.

Despite the Democratic gains, Republicans maintained an edge in overall cash in the bank, with each of the nine members of its Retain Our Majority Program (ROMP) reporting $630,000 in cash on hand as of June 30, as compared to $457,000 for each of the Democrats.