Democrats pay for damage control Democrats have devoted five times as many resources to defending their own Senate and House seats this year as they have attacking Republican ones, an indication of just how much President Obama's party is playing damage control this election. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which air ads on behalf of House and Senate candidates, respectively, have combined to spend nearly $100m protecting their seats from Republican challengers since August, according to campaign finance filings, compared to just $19m attacking GOP-held areas. Republicans, on the other hand, have gone on a free-for-all offensive, seizing upon Mr Obama's sagging approval ratings to spend $81m attacking Democrat-held seats and just $19m protecting their own. "We're in an offensive strategy going after their incumbents, and they're just trying to stop the bleeding at this point," said Daniel Scarpinato, a spokesman for the National Republican Campaign Committee. The lopsided spending figures are a stark change from 2012, when Democrats spent $67m attacking Republican seats and $54m defending their own, and Republicans spent $42m on the attack and $58m defending incumbent seats. The Democratic retreat comes despite its high-octane fundraising machine out-raising and outspending its Republican counterparts by $80m over the two-year election cycle. Democratic-leaning third-party groups have also outspent Republican groups in many important races. There are certain electoral problems that money doesn't fix. A presidential approval rating of 40 per cent or lower in key districts isn't something Democrats can buy themselves out of," said Nathan Gonzales of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report, which forecasts and handicaps elections. The contrast offers a glimpse of how deeply unpopular Mr Obama has become in many portions of the country that supported him and his party just two years ago. Since August, Democrats have slowly withdrawn ad buys from high-profile races in Republican territory to buttress their own beleaguered incumbents. The discrepancy is most pronounced in the competitive Senate races, where out of $90m total spent by both parties, just $8.3m has come in states held by Republicans, specifically Georgia and Kentucky. The remainder has been spent either in states with Democratic incumbents or open seats previously held by Democrats. But Republicans also smell blood in the House, where they are looking to pick up 11 seats en route to the largest majority since the Harry Truman presidency. Pronouncements from top Democrats earlier this year about recapturing the House now seem unthinkable, and most analysts say Republicans are likely to pick up at least 5-10 seats. To do so, Republicans are fighting campaign ad wars on Democratic turf: 80 per cent of the House districts where the party is running attack ads were won by Mr Obama in 2012. Many left-leaning seats that were not even considered to be in play just months ago are now in jeopardy of flipping Republican, perhaps for the long haul. In Minnesota, Collin Peterson, the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee and one of the few remaining members of the moderate "Blue Dog" coalition, has been untouchable over his 24 years in Congress. But $4.3m of attack ads from national Republicans and an inability to distance himself from Mr Obama and Nancy Pelosi, Hose minority leader, has brought his challenger neck-and-neck in polling. The Democratic campaign committees did not respond to a request for comment.