Residents of states with competitive House and Senate races may not believe it, but congressional candidate spending has decreased in 2014, according to a review by the Federal Election Commission released Tuesday.  

Congressional candidates raised more than $1.1 billion combined in the first 18 months of the midterm elections. Of those funds, candidates spent $767 million as of June 30, which marked the end of the second quarter of the year.  

Both of those figures are down from 2012, when candidates had raised $1.2 billion at the same point in the cycle. In fact, this cycle’s total is the lowest amount raised in this period since 2008.  

The dip could be a result of fewer candidates running for Congress in 2014. This cycle, 1,607 candidates have filed the necessary paperwork for bids. That’s down from the 1,848 candidates in the 2012 cycle.  

The FEC, which tracks and enforces federal campaign spending regulations, also calculated money raised and spent by party committees and PACs.  

Of the four House and Senate party committees, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised the most this cycle through the first 18 months. As of June 30, the DCCC had brought in $125 million. Its counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee, raised $101 million as of that date  

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had raised $96 million by June 30. The National Republican Senatorial Committee raised the least of the four committees with $71 million. The full FEC review can be found here .  

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