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Right now this campaign season, Democrats have $6 million more cash on hand than Republicans do for US Senate races. But they also have more vulnerable Senate seats to defend.

The Democratic Party campaign committee that supports Senate candidates raised more money than its Republican counterpart in March: $8.1 million, as opposed to the GOPs $6.3 million.

Washington Editor

Peter Grier is The Christian Science Monitor's Washington editor. In this capacity, he helps direct coverage for the paper on most news events in the nation's capital.

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The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) has now outraised the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) in 13 of the past 15 months, according to a report by the Associated Press. The DSCC is sitting on $22 million in its bank account while the NRSC has $16 million.

Wow, this is kind of a political man-bites-pooch story, isnt it? The Democrats have been insisting that the wealthy and conservative Koch brothers may buy control of the Senate for Republicans via their contributions to outside groups, yet it is the Democrats themselves who have the edge in a key inside party financing measure.

Will this make a difference in November?

Well, wed say dont go to an online betting site and put down money on Sen. Harry Reid (D) of Nevada remaining Senate majority leader next year.

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Democrats raise more than the GOP for US Senate races: Big deal?

Despite political winds blowing against Democrats, new polls show the partys Senate candidates holding their own in key races in Iowa and Arkansas.

A Suffolk University poll in Iowa shows Democratic Rep. Bruce Braleyahead of a leading candidate in thecrowded field of Republican candidates, retired businessman Mark Jacobs, by a 37%-31% margin. Mr. Braley led state Sen. Joni Ernst, Mr Jacobs principal competitor for the GOP nomination, by a 38%-30% margin, according to the poll released Wednesday.

That is in line with the average of recent polls tallied by Real Clear Politics, but is the first poll the website has tracked showing Mr. Braley dropping below 40%. Republicans have been trying to tarnish Mr. Braley over the last month by publicizing a video in which he appeared to scoff at farmers, a vital constituency in the Hawkeye State, while speaking at a fundraiser.

Many Democrats across the country have been struggling in recent months because of President Barack Obamas depressed approval ratings and problems in the rollout of his signature health-care law.

In Arkansas, where Mr. Obama and the health law are especially unpopular, a Talk Business-Hendrix College Poll released this week found that embattled Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor held a 46%-43% lead over his GOP opponent, Rep. Tom Cotton. That is within the polls margin of error, but it is the first time since October that Real Clear Politics has reported a poll showing Mr. Pryor even nominally in the lead.

Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said that in Iowa and Arkansas, Republican candidates have more room to grow their support among voters because they are still becoming known in their states. Mr. Cotton is less well-known than Mr. Pryor, and Republicans in Iowa will gain more traction after the states June 3 primary, Mr. Dayspring said.

But Democrats welcomed signs that Mr. Pryor and other Democratic candidates were holding their own in spite of a deluge of attack ads by outside conservative groups and financiers.

Its clear that Republican Senate candidates across the country are paying a price for their reckless and irresponsible embrace of a special interest agenda thats good for billionaires like the Koch Brothers and bad for middle-class families in their states, said Justin Barasky, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

The Suffolk University poll also tested the strength of would-be 2016 presidential candidates in Iowa, which holds the nations first nominating caucuses. Among Democrats, former Secretary of StateHillary Clinton was the far-away leader, cited as first choice by 63% of self-described Democratic caucus-goers, followed by 12% who chose Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D, Mass.) and 10% who chose Vice President Joe Biden.

Among the large field of potential GOP candidates, support was spread wide and thin: Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was the first choice of 11%, and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush followed with 10% each.

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Democrats in Iowa, Arkansas Hold Their Own, Polls Find

WASHINGTON, April 8 (UPI) -- Democrats in Washington launched an all-out push Tuesday, led by a pair of executive orders signed by President Barack Obama, in an effort to close the lingering wage gap between men and women.

Touting the effort as "National Equal Pay Day," Democrats hope that the highly visible move will help turn up enthusiasm among women and boost turnout in November's primary elections.

Flanked by women members of the Democratic Congressional Caucus, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Obama dared Republicans to "prove me wrong."

"Pay discrimination is not a myth, it's math," he said.

The orders, each hailed as mini versions of the Paycheck Fairness Act that is up for vote in the Senate this week, will prohibit federal contractors from retaliating against workers who discuss their salaries with one another and set new rules for how contractors report their employee pay based on sex and race.

Also present was Lilly Ledbetter, the namesake of the very first legislation signed by a newly minted President Obama and the victim of wage discrimination.

"All I could think about was how much my family had done without," she said, talking about her two decades at Goodyear earning much less than her male colleagues. "When the Supreme Court in 2007 ruled that Goodyear had been paying me unfairly long enough to make it legal, I know I wasn't ready to quit the fight."

The Paycheck Fairness Act, which was sponsored by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and co-sponsored by 52 Senators, has failed twice before in the Senate and lacks any Republican co-sponsors, making it vulnerable to a filibuster.

Studies vary on the size of the wage gap, saying woman earn from 77 to 84 cents on the dollar compared to men with equivalent experience.

Democrats are hoping the bolder tack targeting women will help them this fall, through a combination of higher turnout and hoping that Republican candidates will give a repeat performance of their 2012 "legitimate rape"-type unforced errors.

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Democrats push Equal Pay Day in early campaign effort

Washington (CNN) - In the 2014 battle for the Senate, the Democrats' "best month" beat out the Republicans' "best month."

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee reported Wednesday that they raised $8.1 million in March, their best month of fundraising this cycle. The Senate Democrats' re-election arm says it's now brought in over $74 million since the beginning of the midterm election season, and they have just over $22 million cash on hand with zero debt.

The DSCC's big haul was helped, in part, by President Barack Obama, who headlined two fundraisers for the committee last month.

The DSCC's numbers come one day after the rival National Republican Senatorial Committee reported that they raised over $6.3 million in March, their best fundraising month this cycle. The NRSC said they've brought in more than $16 million since the start of the year, and added that they have nearly $16 million in the bank.

The committees' fundraising figures are considered one of many indicators of a party's strength heading into the midterms, and of course the money raised by the committees can be used for research, get-out-the-vote efforts, and ads that can help their candidates.

RNC touts first quarter fundraising haul

Key races to watch in 2014

While party money is an important indicator, the increase in massive spending by outside groups, thanks to a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that changed the rules and opened the floodgates, has also become a key factor in elections. The biggest spender this cycle to date is the conservative group Americans For Prosperity. The group, backed by the deep pockets of billionaire industrialist brothers David and Charles Koch has shelled out more than $30 million since October to run ads, most of them focused on health care, that attack Democrats and praise Republicans.

"Republican Senate candidates up and down the map have chosen to advocate for the Koch agenda that's good for billionaire special interests but bad for middle class families across the country. As a reward, the Koch Brothers are pouring unprecedented millions into false attack ads aimed at boosting these Republicans, but Democrats have a strong grassroots network and thousands of generous donors across the country helping us raise the resources we need to fight back," said DSCC Executive Director Guy Cecil.

Democrats hold a 55-45 majority in the Senate (53 Democrats and two independents who caucus with the party), but are defending 21 of the 36 seats up in November, with half of those Democratic-held seats in red or purple states.

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Democrats top GOP last month in Senate cash battle

Why the gender gap is so important for Democrats

If you want to know why the Obama White House today is holding another round of events focused on women and equal pay, its this important reminder: Female voters have been the difference between Democrats winning and losing elections. In 2012, President Obama won female voters by 11 points (55%-44%), while Mitt Romney won among men by just seven points (52%-45%). And last November, Democrat Terry McAuliffe won the female vote by nine points (51%-42%) in his victorious gubernatorial campaign. By contrast, Republicans had the narrow edge among women in the 2010 House vote (51%-49%), and Republican Bob McDonnell won female voters by eight points (54%-46%) in his blowout gubernatorial win in 2009. Heres another example: In 2010, Democrats narrowly won Colorados Senate race by winning the female vote by a whopping 17 points (56%-39%), but it lost Missouris Senate race by losing the female vote by five points (50%-45%). Bottom line: The secret to Democratic electoral success is directly through female voters. They know it, and they plan to try to expand that potential advantage via any issue they can (from the economy and health care to contraception). Today, the focus is on the pay gap. And its not just women voters who are going to be the difference between Democrats keeping or losing control of the Senate. Democrats chances here will run through female candidates -- whether its incumbents like Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Kay Hagan (D-NC) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), or challengers like Alison Grimes in Kentucky and Michelle Nunn in Georgia.

Todays White House programming and the GOPs counter-programming

At 11:45 am ET from the White House, Obama will mark Equal Pay Day by announcing his signing of an executive order banning federal contractors for retaliating against employees who discuss their pay, USA Today writes. (The logic is that such retaliation makes it more difficult for females to make as much male colleagues performing the same job.) He also will sign a presidential memo instructing Labor Secretary Tom Perez to require federal contractors to disclose payment data (like by sex and race) to the federal government. Republicans are countering Obamas event by pointing out a study from the conservative American Enterprise Institute that female White House staffers make, on average, 88 cents for every dollar a male White House staffer makes (though thats better than the national average of 77 cents to the dollar, but still an embarrassing talking point for the White House). Republicans also have issued a memo arguing that todays White House event is a stunt to distract from other issues. [Democrats] have no credible ideas to ensure women have the opportunity to secure high-paying jobs, and the Democrat Senate has refused to pass any of the 40 jobs bills the Republican House has sent them. ObamaCare is deeply unpopular, and they dont want to talk about how policy cancellations are hurting women, or about how women are losing access to the doctors of their choice, or about how its meant smaller paychecks for working women (and men). As for the issue itself, whats the bigger problem -- the pay gap or the opportunity gap when it comes to women having a fair shot at the same job?

Hayden vs. DiFi: Speaking about gender politics

In the coming weeks, one of the more explosive political issues will be the release of the Senate Intelligence Committees report on CIA interrogation techniques during the Bush administration. Was torture committed? If so, who was responsible? But also explosive was how former Bush CIA head Michael Hayden described Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinsteins (D-CA) work to release the report. That sense that the motivation for the report may show deep emotional feeling on the part of [Feinstein], but I dont think it leads you to an objective report, Hayden told Fox on Sunday. Democrats pounced on Haydens emotional comment. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called it condescending, NBCs Kasie Hunt reported. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) added, per NBCs Kelly ODonnell: "Gen. Hayden's suggestion that Chairman Feinstein was motivated by 'emotion' rather than a focus on the facts is simply outrageous. And whats bizarre here is that Feinstein is hardly a dove on national security issues; no one initially was a bigger defender of the NSA surveillance program than Feinstein. But the Hayden-vs.-DiFi split reveals a food fight between the old guard of the CIA (you can add current CIA Director Brennan here) and those trying to reform the agency.

A reminder: The Russia-Ukraine story still isnt resolved

Turning to foreign affairs, its worth pointing out that the Russia-Ukraine story is far from resolved. The Washington Post: Police began removing the pro-Russian demonstrators occupying eastern Ukrainian government buildings early Tuesday after a tense night of confrontation that officials here accused Moscow of provoking to seek a pretext for invasion. Protesters were cleared from the regional administration in Kharkiv, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said, although they remained entrenched Tuesday in similar government offices in Donetsk, where protesters erected a barricade of tires and barbed wire. The Russians are warning of a civil war in Ukraine, which begs the question: How can an OUTSIDE country threaten a civil war? The minute they become involved, is it really an internal war in Ukraine? The White House continues to accuse Russia of making the internal situation worse.

Rise of the Oligarchs

Last week, the NBC News Political Unit launched a new series -- Rise of the Oligarchs -- observing that wealthy Americans are playing a more powerful role in U.S. politics than at any other time in the last several decades. On Monday, we profiled four such oligarchs representing all parts of the political spectrum: Sheldon Adelson, Charles and David Koch, Michael Bloomberg, and Tom Steyer. From the article: If you care about politics, its a good time to be a billionaire. American elections have never exactly been an bargain-basement business, but theres no question that more money is flowing from wealthy donors pockets into campaign coffers and television ads than ever before. Since the seminal 2010 Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court, political spending from outside groups many of them either created or bankrolled by American billionaires has skyrocketed from $193 million in 2004 and $338 million in 2008 to a whopping $1 billion in 2012. Our next installment of the series will note this important reminder when it comes to money in politics: Money doesnt always buy you victory.

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Eyeing 2014, Democrats Take Aim at Gender Gap Again