THE WAVE BUILDS:

GOP gets big bump of donors in August (Fredreka Schouten and Matt Kelley, 9/24/09, USA TODAY)

Despite being in the minority in Congress, Republican campaign committees outraised Democrats by $1.7 million in August as they have aggressively collected political cash amid the rancorous debate over health care.

Republicans also held an edge over Democrats in the amount of money available, when counting debts, as both parties set the stage for the 2010 elections, in which more than three dozen competitive House and Senate seats are at stake.