From CQ Politics:

To maximize their chances, each party has a related organization — the Republican State Leadership Committee and the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee — to provide advice and money to state legislative candidates. The Democratic group plans to spend $20 million or more, and the GOP group plans on spending as much as $22 million on such 2010 races.

“If we don’t win these state elections and have majorities, then the whole rest of this is irrelevant,” Carrie Cantrell, a spokeswoman for the Republican State Leadership group, said of redistricting.

The problem for both of these organizations is that it’s historically difficult to get even their most avid faithful excited about midterm state elections. “The great beauty of midterm races is that it becomes much easier for our races to command attention” compared with presidential election years, said Matt Compton, a spokesman for the Democratic Legislative Campaign group. “But it also makes it harder for us to make the argument to voters about why they should go to the polls.”

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