While Republican challenger Diana Irey accelerated her fund-raising pace in the second quarter of the year, she still trailed far behind U.S. Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Johnstown, the veteran incumbent in the 12th Congressional District.

Entering the final four months of the campaign, Mr. Murtha's campaign committee had a cash advantage of more than 10-to-1 over the Washington County commissioner. The Democrat entered July with $1,804,695, while Ms. Irey had $159,138, according to a digest of Federal Election Commission filings compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Murtha funds include money leftover from his last campaign.

Mr. Murtha had raised a total of $2,452,426 during that election cycle and spent $1,481,352 by June 30. Ms. Irey, who has tried to build a national fund-raising effort based on opposition to the Democrat's anti-war rhetoric, had raised a total of $305,541 and spent $146,403.

While her numbers in every category were dwarfed by her opponent's, Ms. Irey's committee did much better in the last three months than in the first quarter of the year, when her total receipts had reached $74,000.

While lagging far behind the incumbent, Ms. Irey was the best financed of any congressional challenger in Western Pennsylvania. Her fund raising was modest, however, compared with that of Democratic challengers in several Eastern Pennsylvania races with higher profiles.

In the 6th District, which extends from the Philadelphia suburbs up to Reading, Democratic challenger Lois Murphy actually had a cash advantage over first-term Republican Jim Gerlach, with $1,402,793 to the incumbent's $1,302,975. The overall totals in the district are close as well, with $2,236,293 for Mr. Gerlach and $2,068,584 for Ms. Murphy.

In the adjoining 7th District, the Democratic nominee, Joe Sestak, a retired U.S. Navy admiral, had $993,746, not far behind the $1,152,012 balance of the Republican incumbent, Rep. Curt Weldon. Mr. Sestak's robust fund raising is one of the surprises of the 2006 cycle among Pennsylvania's U.S. House races.

In another contest in the expensive Philadelphia media market, the Democratic challenger was well behind the GOP incumbent, but with a total that exceeded any challenger of any party in Western Pennsylvania. In the 8th District, which extends north of Philadelphia along the Delaware River, Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick had $1,133,180 available for the final months of the campaign while his Democratic challenger, Patrick Murphy, had $495,236.

After Ms. Irey, the best financed challenger in the Pittsburgh region is Jason Altmire, although the Democrat's June 30 balance, $135,942, is far behind that of the 4th District incumbent, Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Bradford Woods, with $849,805.

Overall, Ms. Hart raised $1,272,736 in that cycle, while Mr. Altmire collected $346,980.

Citing an internal poll conducted for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, national Democrats had argued for months that the 18th District's Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, was one of the most potentially vulnerable incumbents in the country.

The mid-year financial reports offer a powerful rebuttal to that contention. After raising a total of $1,278,660, the incumbent was sitting on a balance of $955,288. His Democratic challenger, Chad Kluko, had just $17,047 in cash after raising only $45,943, since his relatively late entry into the race.