Democrats

Show U$ the money

Barack Obama, the US president, is spending much of August on a fundraising tour ahead of midterm elections in November. He's raising big bucks for Democratic candidates across the country.

In the next two weeks he'll rack up frequent flier miles and campaign cash in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Seattle, Miami and more.

There's an alphabet soup of official Democratic and Republican committees raising money – DNC, RNC, DCCC, NRSC, DSCC, NRCC, etc, all with the goal of collecting enough money to have a competitive advantage in the toughest congressional races.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the average cost of winning a House of Representatives race in 2008 was $1.1m. The average senate seat cost nearly $6.5m. 2010 is likely to be even more expensive.