The Democratic Party is on the verge of claiming complete control of the New York State government. There is a Democratic governor, and Democrats make up about two-thirds of the state Assembly. The last remaining Republican holdout is the state Senate, and Democrats are only two seats away from a majority there. In addition, the watchword for this election is "change," and Democrats are on the "change bandwagon."

The major stumbling block to turning the state Senate blue is that Republicans have several million dollars available. The Senate Republican Campaign Committee (SRCC) has $1.7 million in cash, compared with just under $1.3 million for the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (DSCC). As of a week ago, the Democratic state party committee had a tiny advantage over the Republican state party committee, $418K to $360K. In addition, over the last two months the SRCC had transferred far more to individual candidates than the DSCC had transferred to its candidates.

In other words, Democrats need a major transfusion of money, and there's no time to raise it.

There is a source of money that might be tapped. After a three-way primary in which he got 68% of the vote, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver still has $2.5 million in his own campaign account. State law only allows him to transfer small amounts to other candidates' campaign accounts, but it also allows him (or any candidate) to transfer as much as he wants to the DSCC, which could then transfer all they want to individual Senate candidates' campaign committees.

In other words, he could send $1.5 million to the DSCC, which would give Democrats a huge leg up in the battle to win the state Senate, and still keep a million dollars.

But wait - there's more!

With the fall of Eliot Spitzer, one question nobody in the press is likely to ask is what financial effect this will have on the state Democratic party and campaign committees.

A recent article in the NY Times talks about Spitzer's ability to raise large donations for the state party. With his departure, will that money dry up, or will he continue to work behind the scenes?

The other question that we'll probably never get an answer to (partly because nobody will ask) is whether Spitzer's decision to resign was based in any part on input from his donors.

Not to harp on one topic, but the only way to get past this pestilential money chase is full public funding of elections, known as "Clean Money, Clean Elections." Stay tuned for major announcements on this topic.

Upstate New York breeds two things in profusion: awful republican Congressmen and outstanding Democratic challengers. You know about Eric Massa; now meet Jon Powers.

Via Ben, here's a biographical video well worth taking a look at.

Per Albany Project, Jon raised $117,000 in the last quarter, a good showing on its own merits and certainly for a challenger running against an entrenched incumbent, in his case, Tom Reynolds. You may remember the latter as an enabler of Mark Foley, who came within a few points of losing in November 2006.

Unnoticed by the chattering classes, the playing field for the 2008 battle over the State Senate is taking shape. The DSCC already has field teams on the ground in Long Island, softening up various incumbents; now, Jimmy Dahroug, running for Senate in the Third District, just released some truly remarkable fundraising numbers.

Dahroug:

I'm writing today to thank you for your support, enthusiasm, and kind words in the early months of our campaign. Also, I wanted to share some great news.
With your help, we've collected over $40,000 in receipts for our first filing! We did this in less than 8 weeks! Imagine what we can do by January.

This is a truly remarkable feat, but we haven't done it alone. The outpouring of support we've received - both financial and otherwise - sends a strong message that the people of Suffolk County are ready for a change.