Outside Spending: Red Over Blue

Open Secrets reported on Friday:

One of 2013's more intriguing campaign finance stories was the fact that -- after being outspent 2-to-1 in the 2012 cycle -- liberal outside spending groups easily outpaced their conservative counterparts. Led by groups with close ties to Democratic leadership, liberal super PACs dominated the outside spending in early races such as the special elections in Massachusetts and New Jersey, while major conservative players held their fire or focused on Republican primary fights.

Let's hope Democrats enjoyed the lead while it lasted. This week, conservative groups surpassed liberal groups in total reported outside spending for the 2014 cycle -- and aren't likely to look back.

The scales tipped in favor of conservatives yesterday when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which last cycle spent the bulk of its money opposing Democratic Senate candidates, reported several major ad buys in North Carolina. Conservative groups as a whole have spent $35.7 million so far this cycle, narrowly edging their liberal counterparts' $35.4 million.

As previous posts have indicated, the Chamber has already been quite active in this cycle.