Rep. Jim Gerlach outspent every other Pennsylvania House Republican in his 2006 re-election effort, burning through $3.4 million in his narrow victory. That pace hasn’t slowed.

In the year since he defeated Democrat Lois Murphy, Gerlach has forked out $600,000, according to the Federal Election Commission, more than half of what he’s raised during the cycle. Only a handful of lawmakers in the country have spent more.

Gerlach’s spending spree has left him with $400,000 in his campaign account through Sept. 30, a less-than-modest sum that has buoyed Democrats’ optimism of again seriously challenging the three-term lawmaker in the 6th District even as the party struggles to find someone to run.