By Emily Cadei, CQ Staff

The Democratic strategists running the party’s national House campaign have gotten a huge spending jump on Republicans over the past six weeks, investing in a slew of contested races with almost no GOP response.

Since the beginning of August, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the party’s House campaign arm, has spent more than $3.2 million on campaign efforts not coordinated with candidates’ campaigns — mostly ad buys and mailings — across 29 races. The DCCC’s spending has already exceeded $100,000 in 14 of those races, 11 of which are for seats currently held by Republicans.

The DCCC’s partisan counterpart, the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC), meanwhile has spent only $84,000 on independent campaign efforts, most of it involving political research in six districts the party is defending this year.

The big disbursement of money by Democrats, and where it is being directed, underscores the challenge facing Republicans who badly trail in fundraising and are defending 26 seats left open by GOP members who are either retiring or running for other offices.

The Democrats are touting their early start on general election expenditures this cycle as both a show of strength and a cost-effective strategy. “Our early preparation is paying off,” wrote Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen , the DCCC chairman, in a memo to Democratic House colleagues earlier this week. “The DCCC’s independent expenditure campaign was the first campaign committee to reserve television time for the fall, reserving $53 million in more than 50 districts.”

Van Hollen stated that this early planning saved the committee $15 million, because television time becomes more expensive the closer a reservation is made to the actual date that an ad airs.

The early spending was prompted by what has been a tremendous fundraising year for the party. Through July of this year, the DCCC had raised $115.1 million and still had $56.5 million in the bank. The NRCC trailed well behind with $89.7 million raised and $14.2 million left on hand. Figures through August will be released later this month.

Up to this point, the Republicans have simply not been capable of matching the Democrats’ spending power. In the spring, for example, the Democrats snatched three formerly Republican House seats in special elections, thanks in part to heavy spending.

But if there’s concern in the NRCC, they’re not showing it, claiming that polling gains made by the ticket of John McCain for president and Sarah Palin for vice president since the Republican convention last week point to a shift in political momentum in their party’s favor.

“With a significant increase in Republican intensity sparked by the strength of our presidential ticket, and the Democrats’ repeated refusal to pass meaningful energy legislation to lower the cost of gasoline, Republicans are in a better position to compete all across the congressional playing field,” contended NRCC Press Secretary Ken Spain.

The current reality, however, is that Republicans simply have less money to play with, and will have to manage their resources accordingly. The NRCC has $18 million in television air time reserved in 26 districts, according to GOP officials, but it hasn’t reported any actual ad expenditures for the fall campaign to the Federal Election Commission yet. The DCCC, as Van Hollen noted, has reserved at least $53 million in air time in 51 districts, and, as its independent expenditures reveal, has already begun airing ads in many districts. Both parties’ ad spending is likely to grow.

The DCCC expenditures indicate where intense efforts are being made to keep Democratic candidates highly competitive, especially in bids to take over Republican open seats. Some of the key races include:

• Illinois’ 11th District (South Chicago exurbs — Joliet; part of Bloomington-Normal): This is a matchup between Democrat Debbie Halvorson, the majority leader of the Illinois Senate, and Republican Martin Ozinga, a concrete company executive, to succeed retiring seven-term Republican Rep. Jerry Weller . The DCCC has pumped $465,000 in independent expenditures into the race thus far.