By Greg Giroux, CQ Staff

Money follows power. That simple axiom helps explain why incumbent members of Congress, on average, raise so much more campaign cash than the candidates who want to supplant them.

In fact, 65 U.S. House incumbents each reported more than $1 million in total receipts last year, including six who topped the $2 million mark, according to a CQ Politics analysis of updated campaign finance reports filed by candidates to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) at the end of January.

Many of the members of Congress who raked in seven-figure sums last year are politically influential figures who hold party leadership posts or chair key committees, and they wield fundraising clout commensurate to their stature. Most of these incumbents have “safe” seats that ensure they can stay in Congress for as long as they want.

Other big House fundraisers, though, come from the other end of the electoral security spectrum. They have to raise a lot of money because they face difficult re-election campaigns this year.

The compilation directly below identifies the 10 members of Congress who reported raising the most money in 2007. That is followed by list of the 10 House incumbents who had the most remaining cash on hand, a figure that, in some cases, includes leftover funds carried over from previous House campaigns.

In most cases, the total receipts and cash-on-hand statistics are current as of Dec. 31. The exceptions are the members from the states with very early congressional primaries, which required them to file “pre-primary” reports to the FEC. For Illinois, which held its primary Feb. 5, the figures listed are as of Jan. 16; for members of Congress from Maryland, which holds its primary Tuesday, the data are current as of Jan. 23.

This list excludes Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Niki Tsongas , who raised $2.6 million in 2007. Nearly all of that money was raised when Tsongas was a non-incumbent candidate for the vacant 5th District seat, which she won in a special election last October.

CQ Politics previously has published articles on the 10 best-funded candidates for open and vacant House seats and the 10 best-funded candidates challenging incumbents in primary elections.

U.S. House Members Who Raised The Most Money as of Dec. 31

1) Charles B. Rangel , Democrat, New York’s 15th District ($3.4 million in receipts). Rangel is the chairman of the influential Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over tax, trade and other weighty issues. Rangel has received donations from individuals and organizations who have a lot to gain — or lose — from changes to laws that his panel would weigh.

Rangel, one of the most senior African-Americans in Congress, runs with meager opposition in his Democratic-dominated, minority-majority New York City district, which includes Harlem.

2) Kirsten Gillibrand , Democrat, New York’s 20th ($2.6 million). Freshman Gillibrand, by contrast, is one of the least senior — and most potentially vulnerable — among House Democrats. She unseated Republican Rep. John E. Sweeney in 2006 in a Hudson Valley district that historically has leaned Republican, so she’s been ramping up her campaign fundraising to prepare for vigorous and well-funded opposition this fall. Republicans Alexander “Sandy” Treadwell, a former state Republican Party chairman, and Richard Wager, a former aide to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, are seeking the Republican nomination to oppose Gillibrand in November.

3) Steny H. Hoyer , Democrat, Maryland’s 5th ($2.5 million). As House majority leader, Hoyer ranks second in the House Democratic hierarchy, behind only Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California. Hoyer has long dominated his elections in his Democratic-leaning district, located mainly east and south of Washington, D.C.

4) Mark Steven Kirk , Republican, Illinois 10th ($2.3 million). A centrist Republican who sits on the Appropriations Committee, Kirk is generally well-liked in his 10th District, which includes suburbs north of Chicago. But that district is a partisan battleground — its voters favored Democrat John Kerry over President Bush in 2004 — and Kirk is raking in campaign cash more aggressively than ever before to prepare for the competitive rematch he faces this year with Democratic business consultant Dan Seals. Seals, who raised almost $2 million for a 2006 campaign that netted him 47 percent of the vote against Kirk, easily won a contested Democratic primary on Feb. 5 and is among the better-funded Democratic challengers in the 2008 cycle.

5) Ron Klein , Democrat, Florida’s 22nd ($2.3 million). Like New York first-termer Gillibrand, Klein is a Democratic freshman who unseated a Republican incumbent in the 2006 election — in his case E. Clay Shaw Jr., who had represented parts of southeastern Florida since 1981. Klein, though, appears more politically secure than does Gillibrand. His district is a bit friendlier to Democrats, and he has not drawn top-flight opposition as of yet.

6) Vern Buchanan , Republican, Florida’s 13th ($1.9 million). Buchanan narrowly defeated Democrat Christine Jennings in an exceptionally close open-seat contest in 2006, when his $8.1 million campaign treasury — most of that money from his own pockets — made him the biggest spender among all House candidates, incumbent or non-incumbent. He faces a rematch with Jennings that he is currently favored to win in this Republican-leaning Gulf Coast district.

7) John A. Boehner , Republican, Ohio’s 8th ($1.9 million). As the leader of the Republican minority in the U.S. House, Boehner is one of his party’s most potent fundraisers, and he ranked third among Republicans in overall 2007 campaign receipts. Boehner’s leadership position also requires him to be a quintessential team player, and he’s been giving up large portions of his treasury to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and to Republican candidates — both vulnerable incumbents and challengers to Democratic incumbents — who need the money. On Dec. 14, for example, Boehner transferred $505,000 to the NRCC. Boehner doesn’t really need big bucks to win in his own southwestern Ohio district, a Republican stronghold.

8) James E. Clyburn , Democrat, South Carolina’s 6th ($1.9 million). Clyburn ranks third in the House leadership as Democratic majority whip. That ties Clyburn with former Pennsylvania Rep. William H. Gray III (1979-91) for the title of highest-ranking African-American in congressional history. Clyburn’s fundraising is mostly for the greater Democratic cause, as his elections in South Carolina’s black-majority, heavily Democratic 6th District are routine.

9) Melissa Bean , Democrat, Illinois’ 8th ($1.9 million). Though Bean is a centrist Democrat with an effective campaign style, she probably will be a target of the Republican Party as long as she represents this suburban Chicago district, which historically has voted more Republican than Democratic. This year, as she runs for a third term, is no exception: She is opposed by Republican Steve Greenberg, a businessman.

10) Joe Sestak , Democrat, Pennsylvania’s 7th ($1.8 million). There’s a saying in politics, adopted by the feminist political action group EMILY’s List, that early money is like yeast because it makes dough rise. But freshman Sestak’s campaign is one those cases that shows early money can also be like a vaccine, as it can keep competition from breaking out. Sestak, a former Navy vice admiral, defeated veteran Republican Rep. Curt Weldon by a comfortable margin in 2006. The GOP has had trouble trying to recruit a strong candidate for this year’s challenge to Sestak, who is heavily favored — and rounds out the Top 10 list of best-funded incumbents.

U.S. House Members With the Most Cash on Hand (as of Dec. 31)

1) Frank Pallone Jr, , Democrat, New Jersey’s 6th District ($3.3 million). Pallone doesn’t need a huge campaign treasury to win re-election, as he’s taken 66 percent or more of the vote in each of his past four House campaigns. But he has been mentioned as a potential candidate for major statewide office, which would require the expenditure of millions of dollars. A big House campaign cash reserve could help, as such funds can legally be transferred to a newly formed Senate campaign committee.

Pallone’s name was in the mix when Democrat Jon Corzine won for governor in 2005 and vacated his Senate seat, but the appointment to fill that vacancy instead went to another House Democrat, Robert Menendez , who was subsequently elected to a full six-year term in 2006. The state’s other senator, Democrat Frank R. Lautenberg , is running for re-election this year at age 84.

2) Robert E. Andrews , Democrat, New Jersey’s 1st ($2.38 million). It is no coincidence that the incumbent with the second-biggest cash reserve also is a New Jersey Democrat. Andrews, who has held a safely Democratic seat in the southern part of the state since 1990, has long been mentioned as a potential candidate for the Senate, and also showed interest in the appointment that went to Menendez. Andrews made an early try at statewide office, losing the 1997 Democratic primary for governor.

3) Lloyd Doggett , Democrat, Texas’ 25th ($2.36 million). Doggett, a member of the Ways and Means Committee, represents a Democratic-leaning district in and around Austin, the state capital.

4) Cliff Stearns , Republican, Florida’s 6th ($2.34 million). Stearns, a senior member of the influential Energy and Commerce Committee, represents a strongly Republican north-central Florida district that takes in parts of Jacksonville and Gainesville.

5) Edward J. Markey , Democrat, Massachusetts’ 7th ($2.33 million). Markey’s place in the cash leaders’ list is akin to that of the New Jersey Democrats at the top of the list. Facing little opposition in his suburban Boston district, Markey has piled up a cash reserve for a possible future Senate campaign. He would have run for that office had Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry been elected president in November 2004 and vacated his Senate seat; Markey’s hopes for that opportunity were deferred again when Kerry decided to run for a fifth Senate term and for which he is strongly favored this year. Markey is a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and chairs its subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet.

6) Charles B. Rangel , Democrat, New York’s 15th ($2.27 million). Rangel, who raised the most money of any House member in 2007, also has quite a bit left over.

7) Ed Royce , Republican, California’s 40th ($2.15 million). Royce, who is serving his eighth term, represents a Republican-leaning district in north-central Orange County, including parts of Fullerton and Anaheim. He also is on the House Financial Services Committee, the members of which tend to attract significant campaign contributions from political action committees and individuals associated with financial firms.

8) Joe L. Barton , Republican, Texas’ 6th ($2.044 million). Barton, who represents Arlington and other territory in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, is the top-ranking Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

9) Kirsten Gillibrand , Democrat, New York’s 20th ($2.042 million). Gillibrand, who has more campaign cash than any other first-term member of the House, has nurtured a campaign treasury that she will need to unleash this fall.

10) Steven R. Rothman , Democrat, New Jersey’s 9th ($2 million). The cash Top 10 is rounded out by yet another New Jersey Democrat with known interest in running someday for the U.S. Senate. Rothman has kept piling up the cash, and he has few worries in his strongly Democratic suburban New York City district.