Senator Arlen Specter (D) of Pennsylvania raised over $1.1 million in the 4th quarter of 2009, and has over $8.6 million dollars cash in hand.
Specter has been leading his Democratic primary challenger Congressman Joe Sestak in the polls for months. Sestak officials tell us that they raised $650,000 in the 4th quarter of 2009 and have $5.1 million on hand.
Sestak himself has complained that he is a loyal Democrat and his party is not helping him enough in his battle with Specter, who was a Republican for decades.
When Specter switched parties national democrats assured him that they would help him in his re-election battle.
Specter may end up needing a serious war chest as well. The 5 term Senator who converted to the Democratic party last spring has trailed in Republican Pat Toomey in numerous polls over the past few months.
Many political insiders now consider the race a tossup, seeing former Republican Congressman Pat Toomey as a serious threat.
When Specter switched parties last spring he admitted that he was facing an uphill fight in the Republican primary and cited that as one of the reasons for his decision.
As Fox first reported, Toomey raised $1.67 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, and has $2.8 million cash on hand going into 2010.