Republicans Trounce Dems in Small Donors

Republicans are cashing in the populist outrage they've helped stir up, raising more money from small donors than Democrats for the first time since 1998. GOP candidates have raised $70 million from small donors this year, compared to $44 million for Democrats, the Washington Post reports. That's still only 16% of their total war chest, but for some candidates it's been a much bigger deal—Rand Paul, for example, raised 59% of his funds from small donors.

Paul is typical of small donor favorites—they tend to be media stars with extreme views, who may not be as answerable to party leaders. Michele Bachmann, Marco Rubio and Pat Toomey have all raised disproportionate small donor sums. The RNC has also aggressively courted small donors, with a constant stream of targeted mailings—in part because Michael Steele has driven away so many big ones. (More Republicans stories.)