Chuck Schumer has spent nearly $5 million in television ads thus far. | AP Photo Schumer deploys last-ditch Senate money drop

Chuck Schumer is pumping nearly $1.7 million into competitive Senate races, hoping the last-minute infusion of money for Democrats will ensure he enters 2017 as the Senate majority leader.

The New York senator is seeding nearly $1 million from his personal campaign coffers into four competitive Senate races, a source familiar with the moves said. He’s also distributing $725,000 from a joint fundraising account to candidates across the country.


The new push brings his total direct commitments to about $8 million after he made a flurry of investments in Democratic candidates in September. Though the election is barely a week away, Democrats are facing a spending blitz by GOP-aligned groups that Democrats fear could tip the races away from them at the last moment — not to mention the FBI's Friday announcement that it would take new "investigative steps" into Hillary Clinton's emails.

“The caucus is thrilled, obviously, with what he’s doing. And he’s spending every minute he can doing everything he can for us to have the majority,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), a close Schumer ally who helps run the party’s messaging. “Both his own money and the incredible fundraising nonstop that he’s been doing very effectively, that’s one thing that’s helped even the score” with Republicans.

Schumer has a lot at stake in the coming election, as much as current Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.); he's poised to be elected the Democratic leader when Harry Reid retires at the end of the year. Democrats must win at least four seats to take control of the Senate — but the half-dozen critical races that will decide control of the chamber are still toss-ups.

Schumer's largesse won't equally benefit every Democrat locked in a tight race. Even though Florida Democratic donors are clamoring for help in Rep. Patrick Murphy's race against Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Schumer is sticking to his strategy of competing in cheaper markets where he believes Republicans are more vulnerable to a wave election. Schumer is giving $250,000 each to the Indiana and Wisconsin state parties and $225,000 apiece to North Carolina and Missouri Democrats. In all but Wisconsin, Democrats are attempting to win back seats in red states that six months ago were off the national parties' radars.

Notably, Schumer blessed a “seven-figure” transfer from Senate Majority PAC to a Murphy-specific super PAC this week, indicating he still hopes to win Florida even after Senate Democrats cut $10 million in ad reservations there to focus on North Carolina, Missouri and Indiana. And while many Democrats want to take out Rubio so he doesn’t challenge Hillary Clinton in 2020, a Democrat close to the Senate campaign operation argued that some of that job must be left to Clinton to run up the score in Florida and help oust Rubio.

“These are very hard decisions, Patrick Murphy is terrific and it is obviously much better for him if we have the resources to be able to put into that race,” Stabenow said. “Thanks to all of Chuck’s work we have fewer hard decisions to make.”

The $725,000 in new donations out of Schumer's joint fundraising committee will be disbursed across the map, but will include $50,000 for Murphy and $65,000 for Katie McGinty, the Democratic candidate in Pennsylvania. Schumer has raised about $2.4 million for that account.

He’s also directly raised $2.6 million for Democratic candidates at events, and has also helped steer donors toward Democratic candidates.

And this all comes as Schumer himself runs for reelection in New York. Schumer is crushing his opponent Wendy Long by nearly 40 points, according to the latest poll, but that hasn’t stopped him from flooding the airwaves with advertisements like one featuring him and former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly.

Schumer has spent nearly $5 million in television ads thus far, according to media trackers, a number that does not include the last week before the election. It appears likely he’d spend about $2 million during that week based on spending patterns over the final weeks of October.

The New York senator has been able to give $8 million to Democratic Senate candidates because of his massive cash stash. He had $20 million on hand to start October; his pre-general election financial information is not yet available but he's likely spent nearly half of that at this point according to his media buys and the new transfers.

The source familiar with his financial moves did not say whether Schumer is finished doling out campaign cash.

Scott Bland contributed to this report.