As Democrats released a couple of new ads this week in the west-central 2nd district, Republican state Sen. Brett Guthrie attended a Capitol Hill fundraiser Tuesday.

GOP insiders say the afternoon event, which raised about $50,000, will add to the Republican’s cash-on-hand lead over Democratic state Sen. David Boswell ahead of the Federal Election Commission’s third-quarter filing deadline.

Guthrie flew into D.C. on Tuesday for a few meetings with trade associations that are represented in the 2nd district and then stopped off at a fundraiser hosted by Chief Deputy Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.).

Two recent polls, one released by Boswell’s campaign, have shown the Democrat leading the race, but some political observers have been skeptical of those numbers considering Bosewell is running in a district that President Bush won by 31 points in 2004. Also, Guthrie has been dominating the cash-on-hand department.

The Republican raised $766,000 through June 30 with $661,000 on hand. Boswell had just $45,000 on hand after taking in $238,000 through the first six months of the year.

The DCCC’s inclusion of Boswell on its “Red to Blue” fundraising and infrastructure program and the fact that it reserved $840,000 in airtime in the district appears to be a sign that the party is willing to commit the resources to make up for any fundraising disadvantage on Boswell’s part. Both the DCCC and Boswell’s campaign are up with new ads this week in the district.