I've said it before, I'll say it again -- if Republicans lose their fundraising advantage, they've got nothing left. They've always lost on the issues, but have used money to destroy Democratic candidates, to muddy the issues, and to fund organized campaigns to disenfranchising Democratic base voters. The underfunded Democrats have thus suffered as a result.

But that is now changing.

According to preliminary fundraising numbers released by the campaigns this week, the combined Democratic field raised about $80 million, compared with roughly $50 million collected by their GOP adversaries. In 1999, the last presidential race without an incumbent in the race, Republicans raised $33 million in the first quarter, compared with $13 million by the Democrats, according to the Campaign Finance Institute. The disparity was also evident in 1988, when the Republican field reported $19 million in first-quarter fundraising, compared with $3 million by the Democrats.(...) The lag in donations extends beyond the presidential field. The Republican National Committee is expected to report $25 million in first-quarter revenue later this month. Last year, the RNC raised $32 million in the same quarter. And in 2003, the start of the last presidential cycle, it collected $29 million. The Democratic National Committee hasn't caught, or surpassed, the RNC, which has long been the political fundraising giant. Still, the DNC has reported raising more than $14 million in the first quarter - a $6 million increase over the same quarter in 2003.

Republicans will still have enough money to run their fear- and smear-based campaigns, but we now have better tools and more money to fight back. The politics of 2002, when I started blogging, and those of the 2007-2008 cycle are really worlds apart.