I was skeptical when I saw the headline for this article: “Senate Democrats Ahead in Cash Race.” It seemed at odds with everything else I’ve read about fundraising this year. Sure enough, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has pulled ahead of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee by something like $6 million. But when I got to the last two paragraphs, I realized why the story sounded weird:

The Democratic National Committee reported quarterly figures showing that it has raised $74.1 million so far in the 2005-2006 cycle. That puts the party on track to break its 2001-2002 record of $93.4 million for a year with no presidential election — with the best months for pulling in cash still to come as the midterm elections approach.
But the DNC had only $10 million in the bank, less than a quarter of the Republican National Committee’s $43 million balance. Democrats in both the House and the Senate have complained that the poor cash-on-hand position of the DNC threatens to undermine the party’s ability to finance get-out-the-vote efforts. The RNC has collected $141.9 million in the current cycle, nearly twice as much as the DNC, or about 1.9 to 1, compared with the 2.3 to 1 ratio in the 2001-2002 cycle.

I knew I’d read that somewhere. Probably in the last paragraph of some other newspaper report about how the Democrats are probably going to win this year.