Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- After speaking with a dozen voters in a supporter's living room, Democrat Eric Massa walks up to nurse Sarah Bullard and shakes her hand. ``I'm not going to let go until you give $50 for my congressional campaign,'' he says to laughter, before handing out donation envelopes.

Massa is collecting a lot of checks in his upstate New York congressional district. He's held 250 house parties and raised $1.8 million, $500,000 more than two-term Republican Representative Randy Kuhl. That, plus an infusion of cash by the Democratic Party, has helped turn an area that last elected a Democrat in 1984 into a toss-up this year.

Massa is one of 18 Democrats who are out-raising their opponents in competitive races for 40 seats in the House of Representatives now held by Republicans. That has fanned the party's hopes it can expand its 36-seat majority and control the agenda on everything from taxes to carbon emissions.

``These candidates got a very early start,'' said Representative Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. ``The momentum has grown.''

"American families are feeling the pain as jobs continue to be outsourced, benefits continue to be slashed, and pensions continue to be cut. It's no coincidence that businesses are exporting our jobs in mass numbers to low wage countries. The bottom line is that priorities in Congress are upside-down. The Bush-Kuhl administration continues to give away billions in tax breaks to multi-millionaires and Big Oil, all at the expense of working American families. What Americans really need is a Congress that will fight for their best interests, not the corporate special interests. We need a sane, healthy approach to economic development in Western New York and I won't stop until American families have the real answers to these very real economic problems."
-Retired Navy Commander Eric Massa