Niki Sullivan over at the TNT's Political Buzz blog has offered a preliminary breakdown of the cash-on-hand situation for the Governor's race. By her calculations, Gregoire has $3.8 million after a boffo fundraising month, while Rossi keeps plugging along as well with a tidy $3.1 million in the bank. We'll know for sure on Monday when the PDC reports for April are due.

In the meantime, Sullivan is curious how the Rossi campaign could have lowered its expenses. Easy: less direct mail.

Sources within the Rossi camp have in the past made mention of their heavy use of direct mail. Just about any regular Republican donor and/or grassroots activist in Evergreen State will attest to this. This strategy serves the twofold purpose of building a donor base and stimulating enthusiasm in the grassroots, if done well.

Read down the list of the Rossi campaign's top expenditures, as reported by the PDC, and that focus is obvious. The top twenty outlays are almost entirely on fundraising, particularly to a direct mail firm (Pinnacle Direct).

Such activity has natural lulls during a long campaign, notably after the core of the donor base is built, and especially if large numbers of that base have provided their email address. Thus, less expensive electronic communication becomes a more regular option for staying in contact with many donors.

That seems to be working. Just a few days after announcing the milestone of 30,746 donors on May 5th (surpassing the total of the 2004 campaign), yesterday the Rossi campaign announced its 32,000th donor.

That small dollar base is particularly important this cycle. Many of the usual interest groups and corporations who split their checks or went out on a limb to give to Rossi in 2004 will be obligated to give to the incumbent this time - or sit on the sidelines. Rossi's high number of small-dollar donors is an interesting indicator of strength, but in this case it is also essential to keep his finances competitive.