Not surprisingly, the Senate Republicans have a combined fundraising advantage over their Democratic counterparts, according an analysis by the numbers wizard Bill Mahoney at the New York Public Interest Research Group.

The tabulation shows the combined strength of the Senate GOP is, well, pretty strong.

The Republicans have a grand total of $18.4 million in their various committees that reported in the 32-day pre-general election filing period. And that doesn’t include their housekeeping committee, which isn’t required to report until mid-January.

That committee recently received a $1 million donation from Mayor Michael Bloomberg. (In other words, the GOP kitty is probably a good deal fatter than what the current filings show).

The Senate Democrats, meanwhile, have a combined $3.4 million in cash - including $465,698 held by retired lawmakers.

Mahoney also notes that there’s $417,310 in committees that belong to ex-legislators who are “currently in prison.” But that money isn’t likely to be actively engaged in this year’s elections. (Honestly, can you imagine a candidate trying to explain why he or she is accepting contributions and/or an independent expenditure from a corrupt felon?)

And these numbers also don’t include the political action committees like the NYSUT effort to spend at least $750,000 in battleground districts in Queens, Westchester and Monroe counties on the Senate Democrats’ behalf.

For the Republicans, there’s the shady Virginia-based “Common Sense Principles” organization, which has been sending mailers knocking Democratic candidates in key races.

Nypirg Senate Dems v Gop Oct 9 2012 (2)

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