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The 2015 federal election will require political parties to work harder than ever to capture the attention of the electorate. This story is part of Adam Radwanskis new assignment looking at how the party machines across the country are preparing.

Federal Liberals and New Democrats are bracing to be heavily outspent on the ground by the governing Conservatives in this years election.

All three leading parties can be expected to spend their national limit of more than $20-million during the official campaign period scheduled for next fall, and the Liberals recent fundraising success should allow them to join though not match the Conservatives in national prewrit advertising. But officials with both opposition parties are privately worrying that many of their riding associations will suffer a cash disadvantage both leading up to the campaign and during it.

Its a huge issue, a Liberal official said, speaking on a background basis. We spent a fair amount of last year internally sounding the alarm bells on this.

Although the 2011 election demonstrated that riding resources do not always have a strong impact on results as the NDP virtually swept Quebec despite minimal organization there all parties expect closer on-the-ground battles this time. Members of their campaign teams commonly express the view that candidates ability to spend close to their limit which ranges from about $90,000 to $120,000, depending on the number of voters could provide decisive advantages where there are margins of victory under 10 per cent.

Among those potential advantages are the ability to pay for voter contact, including through phone banks or paid canvassers, and communications. While the in and out controversy following the last election will require parties to step carefully, rules around regional advertising are likely ambiguous enough to allow several local campaigns to pool together funds for city-wide ads; candidates who arent in close races, but have ample cash reserves, could also help allies by purchasing ads that will be seen both by their own voters and by those in neighbouring ridings.

The scale of the Conservatives current advantage is difficult to gauge, because riding associations 2014 financial returns will not be available until later this year. But a Globe and Mail review of the previous years returns found that, as of the end of 2013, Conservative riding associations cumulatively had more than $15-million in net assets, while the Liberals had under $8-million and the NDP less than $4-million.

As of the last filings, the Conservatives were continuing to widen the gap, topping the Liberals by nearly $1-million and the New Democrats by more than $2-million in local fundraising in 2013. And there appears a good chance they continued to pad their advantage in 2014, with a senior Conservative source expressing confidence the governing partys riding assets now top $20-million.

That could give the Conservatives an equal or greater advantage to the one they had in the 2011 election, when their candidates cumulatively spent just under $20-million, Liberals spent less than $15-million and New Democrats about $7-million.

At the end of 2013, the Conservatives had 54 riding associations with more than $100,000 in net assets, next to eight for the Liberals and just one for the NDP. The Conservatives have some associations with much more money than they could spend during the campaign, which they are permitted to transfer to other ridings. (Among the richest is Employment Minister Jason Kenneys in Calgary, which at the end of 2013 had over $360,000.)

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Tories set to take early fundraising lead for federal election