Back in 2006, Chris Bowers organized a “Use it or Lose it” campaign urging members who were safe and had large war chests to fork some over. It was a new concept and caused some pushback, but it caught on.

This year, John Kerry, who is running against token opposition, has already stepped up:

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) has made a $1 million contribution from his campaign to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), he told supporters in an e-mail Tuesday. Kerry said the current financial crisis shows how important it is for Democrats to get to 60 seats. “It’s time to push even harder to completely change Washington,” Kerry wrote in an e-mail. “So I have an announcement: I just gave a million dollars from my campaign to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to try to make this happen.”

To me, this is an indication that the Democratic Senators are hungry. They want 60. Elected officials usually hoard money.

Might not be intentional, but it feels like John Kerry is sending a signal to his colleagues with war chests: Fork it over.