Campaign money built up by incumbents well in advance of the next election in order to give them a financial head start and discourage potential challengers Often includes leftover campaign money from the last election, as well as money raised early in the term After the 1994 elections, three victorious U S Senate candidates (Kay Bailey Hutchison [R-Texas], Joseph Lieberman [D-Conn ], and Connie Mack [R-Fla ]) had over $1 million on hand for the next race -- six years away In the U S House, 10 newly-elected representatives had a $600,000-plus war chest; three -- David Drier (R-Calif ), Charles Schumer (D-N Y ), and Robert Torricelli (D-N J ) -- surpassed the million dollar mark with $2 3 million, $2 2 million, and $1 3 million, respectively