If it's a week before an election, it must be time for the eight day out campaign finance reports. Barring last-minute contributions filed via special telegrams, this is pretty much where the war chests remain in the last week. Care to guess where the big cash went?

(Note: incumbents marked with *)

Senate District 14

Candidate	Raised	Spent	Cash on hand	Outstanding loans
Kirk Watson* (D)	$106,110.95	$100,543.39	$1,645,116.58	$0
Mary Lou Serafine (R)	$8,061.40	$13,963.45	$2,797.75	$0
Kent Philips (L)	$0	$0	$0	$0

Yup, Watson is sitting on 800 times the warchest of Serafine.

Senate District 25

Candidate	Raised	Spent	Cash on hand	Outstanding loans
Jeff Wentworth* (R)	$36,726.26	$19,541.66	$26,387.66	$0
Arthur Maxwell Thomas IV (L)	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Back in the Summer, Wentworth had emptied his campaign coffers, and everyone thought that he was going to take a job at Texas A&M. Seems that job fell through and the spending was a little premature. Fortunately for him, Thomas hasn't filed a campaign finance report since July.

House District 46

Candidate	Raised	Spent	Cash on hand	Outstanding loans
Dawnna Dukes*	$9,875	$4,744.95	$33,548	$0
George Emery (L)	$370	$150	$62.59	$0

Without a Republican challenger, and with Emery spending a grand total of $150 on a fundraiser, Dukes has been able to build up her warchest a little bit.

House District 47

Candidate	Raised	Spent	Cash on hand	Outstanding loans
Valinda Bolton (D)*	$244,472.10	$290,905.39	$34,071.45	$0
Paul Workman (R)	$217.422.27	$236,862.67	$95,084.14	$15,000
Kris Bailey (L)	$0	$50	$0	$0

With $50,000 each from the Associated Republicans of Texas Campaign Fund and the Republican Party of Texas Victory State Account, plus $50,900 from Texans for Lawsuit Reform, there's little doubt that the GOP is doubling down on Workman as their best hope for a Travis County House win. Bolton got her own boost, with a total of $85,630.36 from Texans for Insurance Reform, the nemesis of torte reform mavens Texans for Lawsuit Reform. However, those donations came in before his cancer diagnosis, which is always a wild card in election thinking.

House District 48

Candidate	Raised	Spent	Cash on hand	Outstanding loans
Donna Howard* (D)	$68,100.37	$42,106.76	$92,303.77	$0
Dan Neil (R)	$26,746.24	$41,479.16	$23,987.84	$0
Ben Easton (L)	$0	$0	$0	$0

Is Neil's campaign dead in the water? The major GOP PACs (including the GOPAC-TX, which he helped found) are nowhere to be seen, while Howard has actually increased her war chest by $14K since the 30 day reports.

House District 49

Candidate	Raised	Spent	Cash on hand	Outstanding loans
Elliott Naishtat* (D)	$52,349	$18,142.32	$239,257.27	$0
Nathan Kleffman (L)	$50	$40.25	$256.55	$0

With a warchest like that, and nothing to spend it on, Naishtat could run in HD-47 if he felt like it (wakka-wakka!)

House District 50

Candidate	Raised	Spent	Cash on hand	Outstanding loans
Mark Strama* (D)	$107,449.84	$149,612.66	$108,818.25	$45,000
Patrick McGuinness (R)	$25,422.62	$132,179.70	$8,453.47	$0
Emily Cowan	$0	$21.64	$455.81	$0

McGuinness' campaign functionally flatlined on fundraising, while Strama got a boost with $30,000 a piece from HEB owner and education advocate Charles Butt (who works with Strama on Raise Your Hands Texas) and Texans for Lawsuit Reform.

House District 51

Candidate	Raised	Spent	Cash on hand	Outstanding loans
Eddie Rodriguez* (D)	$13,356	$$ 13,908.12	$9,135.12	$0
Marilyn Jackson (R)	$8,267.25	$2,420.49	$2,267.43	$0
Arthurd DiBianca	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Safe to say that this remains a low-priority race for the big donors. Like Thomas in SD-25, DiBianca hasn't filed a report since the July semi-annuals.