Democrats in Oro Valley's Legislative District 26 are raising big bucks in their quest to hold one House seat—and perhaps capture the district's Senate post.

Democrat Cheryl Cage recently broke six figures in her campaign to unseat Republican Senator Al Melvin—and she still has more than $70,000 in the bank, according to the latest round of campaign-finance reports, which were released last week and cover Aug. 5 to Sept. 13.

Look for TV commercials portraying Melvin as a nutty old guy who failed to balance the budget, voted to keep payday lenders in business, and is trying to make Arizona the nuclear capitol of America.

Meanwhile, Melvin has raised roughly $55,000 total and only spent $10,000 of that so far. Watch the mailbox for his “candidate comparison” fliers calling Cage an Obama-loving big-spending socialist who is against SB 1070, atomic energy and school choice. And she wants to tax your golf cart.

In the House of Representatives race, we hear Republican Terri Proud’s relatively low funds are being offset by shoe leather, event appearances and phone calls from the new Republican command center in SaddleBrooke. And while she’s only raised $24,000 so far, she also got backing from the conservative Arizona Free Enterprise Club, which spent an extra $14,000 on her just before the primary. She still has about $14,000 in the bank.

Republican Representative Vic Williams must feel pretty confident going into the general election. He raised more than $37,000 in this election, but blew most of his load before the primary and now has about $7,000 left in the bank.

Democratic Representative Nancy Young Wright out-raised the two Republicans combined. With a total of $83,000 for the election so far, she's the best-funded House candidate in Southern Arizona. She’s still holding more than $40,000, and early voting starts this week.