Campaign Disclosures Show the Value of Small Donations

Out of his $26 million third-quarter haul, just $305,734 came from donors giving $2,700 or more. Those groups must be legally separate from the campaigns, but are often stacked with a candidate's most trusted aides. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, South Carolina Sen. The biggest bundled sum - $320,000 - came from Democratic lobbyist Heather Podesta of Heather Podesta + Partners.

The donations for the quarter, which included the month of August when much political activity slows for summer vacations, put Bush behind only retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson in money raised among the 15 Republicans seeking their party's nomination for the November 2016 election. Meanwhile, Cruz's campaign spent more than $212 at McDonald's, and Marco Rubio's bought $1,000 worth of Chick-Fil-A. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a libertarian Republican, raised $2.5 million.

Clinton has outpaced Bush when it comes to attracting small donations.

Federal reports filed Thursday show Perry raised less than $300,000 between July 1 and September 11, when he ended his campaign.

Followed by Bernie Sanders and Ben Carson.

Carson has taken $31 million in contributions this year and has spent $20 million. Their fundraising reports overall indicate broader support across the country. Ted Cruz of Texas raised $12 million, and Carly Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard executive, raised nearly $7 million. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on the Democratic side were the only other candidates to top the money race in more than one state.

The Golden State gave a huge assist to Clinton's campaign, on the other hand. While super PACs are not required to disclose updated fundraising totals until January, groups backing Rubio and Bush have reported raising at least $140 million in unlimited contributions.

Kasich may be less unhappy about that than Christie. The steady fundraising of outsider candidates, who have tapped into a network of smaller donors, suggests a financial paradigm shift in both parties, but particularly on the right, where candidates beloved by the Republicans' socially conservative and evangelical base have long struggled to muster the financial resources to sustain a long-term campaign for the nomination. The proudly non-political candidate's large stable of consultants include the marketing firm Infocision, which got $1.4 million in for fundraising; TMA Direct, a list management and direct marketing firm, which got $1.3 million for list rental and web services, and Eleventy Marketing, which takes its name from The Lord of the Rings, and got more than $4 million for database management and web services.

Yet Bush isn't seeing almost the returns Clinton is, being the fundraising leader in just four states - far fewer than Carson - and his campaign had raised roughly one-third of what Clinton's has. More specifically, Hillary Clinton's massive campaign fundraising lead over the rest of the field shrank.

One of Carson's closest fundraising competitors is Texas Sen.

Former Secretary of State Clinton, who insisted during the first Democratic primary debate that she plans to increase regulations on banks and hold Wall Street accountable, trailed with $682,000 from the finance industry, much less than the $2 million she took in from the industry in the second quarter.

Donors in other swing states, though, coalesced around two candidates between July 1 and the end of September: Clinton and Bush out-raised all their opponents in Florida, Nevada and Virginia.

The tension between the Bush and Rubio camps were on full display Thursday afternoon, when nearly immediately after the Bush campaign announced its fundraising numbers, the Rubio campaign sent out an email noting its superior cash-on-hand numbers (the Bush campaign has about $10.3 million).

All told, the 22 major presidential candidates - including two who recently dropped out - have raised $274 million so far for their official campaigns.

Senior Researcher Doug Weber contributed to this post.