A rash of resignations on Capitol Hill and among President Bush’s senior staff has increased the impression that Republicans are fleeing for the exits before electoral disaster next year.

In the past week three of the party’s four leaders in the House announced that they would not seek re-election, and yesterday Tony Snow, Mr Bush’s spokesman, became the latest senior White House aide to quit. This came after the announcement by Karl Rove, Mr Bush’s chief strategist, that he will leave on August 31.

The growing exodus has intensified Republican fears that as the Bush presidency ends mired in Iraq, the party faces further losses in the House and Senate next year, a Democrat victory in the presidential race and an era of internecine bloodletting.

Although a Democrat White House victory is far from assured, by every measure the Republican Party is in trouble. Recent polls show that compared with 2002, when America was split evenly over party identification, now only 35 per cent call themselves Republican - whereas 50 per cent say that they are Democrat.

At the end of the Reagan presidency 37 per cent of young people - those aged 18 to 25 - were Republican. That is down to 25 per cent today.

For the first time in a decade Democrats are raising vastly more money than Republicans. Before next year’s congressional elections the Senate Democratic campaign committee has more than $20 million (£10 million) in cash - compared with less than $6 million for its Republican counterpart.

In the House the Democratic campaign committee has $20 million in the bank; the Republicans only $2 million. A comparison between the top three presidential candidates for each party reveals a wide disparity. The leading Democrats had cumulatively $95 million cash on hand at the end of June; their Republican rivals only $33 million between them.

On Capitol Hill the core of the Republicans’ House leadership is leaving. Last week Dennis Hastert, who lost his job as House Speaker when Democrats regained control of the chamber last November, announced that he would not stand for re-election. So did Deborah Pryce, another member of the House leadership. She leaves vacant her Ohio seat, a bellwether and one of the most vulnerable.

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