The official third quarter fundraising totals for the presidential candidates have recently been made available and there have been a lot of news articles and analyses about what it all means, so here is a quick wrap up: a heck of a lot of money is being raised. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, all of the candidates combined have raised more than twice as much money as the 2004 candidates did during the same period in 2003 -- $404 million this year through September 30th compared to only $188 million at the same time four years ago. Senator Clinton's campaign has raised $91 million alone, passing the $85 million mark posted by the Bush fundraising juggernaut through September 30, 2003. Senator Barack Obama is not far behind with $80 million in total receipts.

Much has been written about how the Internet has broadened base of fundraising since the 2004 presidential elections. But as Josh has already noted in his post earlier this week about an analysis by the Campaign Finance Institute, large donors still rule. What I thought was interesting, however, was how dependency on small donations varies widely among the candidates. Representative Tom Tancredo has raised a whopping 80 percent of his campaign contributions from small donations - defined as $200 or less. Meanwhile Senator Chris Dodd was the least dependent on small donations, raising only 4 percent of his donations in small contributions. Overall, small donations represent only 21 percent of the total fundraising. Between the two financial frontrunners, Senator Obama has raised twice the percentage of his total contributions from small donations compared to Senator Clinton - 28 percent to 12 percent.