During the last cycle when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was able to effectively match the National Republican Congressional Committee despite the fact that most political analysts saw little chance of the Democrats taking the House (at least through the first half of the cycle), many took notice. Now that the Democrats are in control of the House their fundraising efforts appear even more impressive, as Lauren W. Whittington reports today for Roll Call (subscription required).

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised $19 million in the first three months of the year and ended March with more than a $7 million cash-on-hand advantage over its Republican counterpart, fundraising reports due to be filed on Friday will show.

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The National Republican Congressional Committee raised $15.8 million in the quarter, a significantly smaller haul than the committee had in the first quarter of both 2005 and 2003, when the GOP still held the House majority.

At the end of last month, the DCCC had $9.8 million in the bank compared to the NRCC's $2.5 million.

Both committees significantly paid down their outstanding debts from the 2006 cycle in the first three months of the year.

The DCCC ended March with $4.9 million in debt, while the NRCC will show $7.9 million. Democrats started the cycle with a debt of about $11 million, while the NRCC's debt stood at about $15 million.

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In the first quarter of 2006, the DCCC raised $14.8 million and in the first three months of 2005 took in $12.4 million. In March 2003, when the Iraq War was just breaking out and President Bush was riding high in the polls, the DCCC reported raising just $7.4 million in the first quarter of the year.

The NRCC, meanwhile, raised $19.8 million in the first quarter of 2005 and $22.9 million in 2003, which coincided with the start of the previous presidential cycle.

Money certainly isn't everything in politics. If it were, Republicans would have at least held on to the House last November and perhaps even the Senate.

That said, the new chairman of the DCCC, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, is doing a really terrific job at putting the Democrats in the position to retain control over the House in the 111th Congress. When debts are taken into account, the DCCC holds more than a $10 million cash on hand advantage over the NRCC, a significant figure, no doubt. Combined with the fact that members of the Democrats' Frontline program, which is designed to protect potentially vulnerable members and is spearheaded by Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Floriday, have an average of $287,000 on hand at the end of the first quarter -- a figure more than 55 percent better than the last cycle and more than 125 percent better than this point in 2003 (the corresponding period in last presidential cycle) -- these hard dollar numbers could indeed augur well for the Democrats. And if earlypolling is to be trusted, this could shape up to a bullish cycle for House Democrats -- no matter what the naysaying pundits think.