Ten Non-Incumbent House Candidates Topped $100K in First Quarter

I am not surprised to see that Republicans are generating a significant amount of cash to go after Democrats in the next election. The problem is that they are not approaching it in the most effective ways by going after incumbents that have wide support and have dominated their races in the past. For example, even though Republicans hate Representative John Murtha for his views and outspokenness, he seems like he is pretty secure in his seat. Murtha is one of the most active earmark requests in Congress and his constituents do end up seeing money spent back in their district as a result. Republican candidate William Russell seems like a nice guy given what I have seen of him in the news, but for him to have generated over $400,000 this early in the game means that Republicans feel they have shot in this race. Russell's military background makes him a classic national defense conservative and I would imagine that given the economy in Pennsylvania, the constituents would care more about economics than the threat of terrorism at this point in time. Fortunately for Republicans they are demonstrating that they can raise money even in trying times and that may just translate into a few surprises come election day.