“The National Weather Service said the four twisters to hit Kentucky were the worst in the region in 24 years. In Indiana, an EF-4 tornado - the second-highest on the Fujita scale that measures tornadic force - packing 175 mph winds hit the town of Henryville, and stayed on the ground for more than 50 miles.” - AP, 3/4/12

We posted a graph a few days ago that showed the rising cost of defeating an incumbent in the House. The above piggybacks on that subject, as it displays the spending imbalance among Congressional candidates. In 2008, nearly 70 percent of candidates held at least a 5:1 advantage over their competitors (kudos to OpenSecrets for the chart).

That’s a pretty staggering number.

It cements the importance of fundraising for candidates, while also pointing to one possible reason of why re-election rates are so high (hovering above 85 percent as recently as 2010) while approval ratings for Congress are at an all-time low (10 percent among all types of voters).

— Spencer