By Greg Giroux, CQ Staff

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) raised slightly more money in April than the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), according to updated campaign finance reports that the political organizations filed this week. But the April figures are not reflective of the Democratic edge in fundraising for Senate races this election cycle.

The DSCC, which is overseeing the Democratic Party’s fundraising and strategy in this year’s 35 Senate races, raised $4.2 million in April, a shade below the $4.3 million reported by the NRSC.

But the DSCC has otherwise outpaced the NRSC in fundraising for the entire election cycle — $76.5 million to $47.9 million — in part because there is a strong presumption that Democrats will improve upon their 51-49 operational majority in a year in which the Republicans must defend 23 of the 35 Senate contests. Indeed, the DSCC ended April with $37.6 million cash-on-hand — or nearly twice the $19.4 million that the NRSC had left to spend as this began.

The DSCC began to flex its financial muscles a bit in April, the first month this cycle in which the DSCC spent more than it raised, transferring about $1.5 million to more than a dozen state affiliates. The largest transfer — $1 million — went to the Virginia Democratic Party, which is helping Democratic former Gov. Mark Warner prepare his campaign for the Senate seat of retiring Republican Sen. John W. Warner . CQ Politics rates that race “Democrat Favored.”

The DSCC also reported spending about $320,000 on “coordinated expenditures,” which are the limited funds that party committees can spend to assist individual candidates. How much a party committee can spend on coordinated funds in a state is governed by a formula that takes into account its voting-age population.

Among the races in which the DSCC spent coordinated funds in April were Louisiana, where Democratic Sen. Mary L. Landrieu is seeking re-election, and North Carolina, where Democratic state Sen. Kay Hagan, the DSCC’s preferred candidate to oppose Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole , easily won a primary election on May 6. CQ Politics rates the Louisiana race “Leans Democratic” and the North Carolina contest as “Republican Favored.”

Though facing a difficult political environment and a partisan disadvantage in the number of open seats on the 2008 ballot, the NRSC actually has more than $2 million more in its accounts now than it did at this point two years ago, when it was defending a 55-45 majority that the Democrats overturned with a six-seat gain that November.

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC)

• April 2008 receipts: $4.2 million

• Cycle-to-date receipts: $76.5 million

• April 2008 expenditures: $4.5 million

• Cycle-to-date expenditures: $39 million

• Cash on hand, April 30: $37.6 million