AP Photo 2016 Clinton raises $28 million but Sanders’ haul is too close for comfort 
 
 Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton’s campaign barely outpaced Bernie Sanders’ in the third quarter of 2015, a surprising development that shows the insurgent candidate’s strength while the former secretary of state struggles. 
 
 Clinton’s operation raised more than $28 million in the third quarter after a grueling fundraising schedule, compared with about $26 million for the Vermonter — who raised his money largely from online donations, and few in-person fundraising events. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 The narrow gap illustrates Sanders’ momentum in the third quarter, as he overtook Clinton in polling in both New Hampshire and Iowa. But Clinton’s overall fundraising machine remains formidable: combined with the $47.5 million she raised in the second quarter, her campaign has brought in roughly $75 million in six months. Sanders, by comparison, raised just $15 million in his first few months. 
 
 While considerably less than her first haul, Clinton's $28 million figure doesn’t come as a huge surprise to her team. The campaign had expected her numbers to drop during the summer months, while she was dogged by questions about her email practices at the State Department and falling poll numbers in the early-voting states. 
 
 "We are thrilled and grateful for the support of hundreds of thousands of donors across the country, helping us raise a record $75 million in the first two quarters," said Clinton's campaign manager Robby Mook in a statement. 
 
 The campaign's joint fundraising committee with the Democratic National Committee and state parties brought in over $3 million, the campaign said. 
 
 But Sanders’ own eye-popping haul — he raised $2.07 million online on Sept 30 alone — gives Democrats reason for pause. Much of the party establishment’s argument against Sanders centers on whether he could stand head to head against a well-funded Republican in the general election. His now-demonstrated fundraising prowess hardly erases such concerns, but it calls the assumption into question. 
 
 Clinton’s allies also take solace in knowing that she has affiliated super PACs with considerable fundraising power, while Sanders refuses to associate with any such groups. Priorities USA Action, the big-money Clinton group, told POLITICO it had raised $40 million so far in 2015 by mid-August. 
 
 Sanders’ campaign said on Wednesday that it had passed the one-million contributor mark in the third quarter, while Clinton’s own operation said that 93 percent of her third-quarter donations came in increments of less than $100. 
 
 The full disclosures for the period that ended Sept. 30 will be released next week, and filings from both contenders will be scrutinized not only for the details about where the money came from but how the campaign then spent it. ||||| Bernie Sanders nearly matched Hillary Clinton's fundraising in the last quarter – raising an eye-popping $26 million to Clinton’s $28 million – and multiple sources on Clinton’s team told POLITICO they expect him to beat her when the next financial disclosures are filed next week. | AP Photo Clinton donors say Sanders is raising more than the front-runner Her team lowers expectations with one cash-dash week to go in 2015. 
 
 Hillary Clinton’s donors say they think Bernie Sanders will raise more money in the fourth quarter than their candidate for the first time ever — a testament to the underdog’s online cash juggernaut and a harbinger of donor fatigue among the front-runner’s backers. 
 
 Clinton campaign officials said she remains on track to reach her goal of $100 million for the primary by the end of the year; she had already collected $77 million by the end of the third quarter. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 But Sanders nearly matched Clinton in the most recent quarter — raising an eye-popping $26 million to Clinton’s $28 million — and multiple fundraising sources on Clinton’s team told POLITICO they expect the Vermont senator to beat her when the next financial disclosures are filed on Jan. 30, just before the Iowa caucuses. 
 
 “People are feeling very complacent — and more reluctant to contribute — because they don’t take Bernie Sanders that seriously,” top Clinton donor Alan Patricof told POLITICO. “They look at the other side and think, how could anyone possibly back any one of them? The attitude of sensible people is that she's the only one who makes any sense.” None of the donors or campaign insiders POLITICO spoke with Monday disputed the notion that Sanders was on track to beat them in the end-of-year cash race. 
 
 Low-balling your candidate’s fundraising totals is a time-honored practice in presidential politics: If Clinton somehow manages to come out on top, her campaign can portray the quarter as exceeding expectations — no easy feat in a race where she is leading Sanders by 20 to 30 percentage points nationally. 
 
 But the concern appears to be real. Over the past few days, Clinton’s advisers have taken steps to stoke donor enthusiasm: Bill and Chelsea Clinton, who on Monday announced she is pregnant with her second child, have stepped up their fundraising for the campaign. They are expected to become even more involved in the campaign beginning in January. 
 
 And many of the donors POLITICO has interviewed over the last few months say the widespread perception that’s she’s a shoo-in is prompting would-be donors to remain on the sidelines — waiting to throw their financial support behind her for the only race they believe truly matters — the general election. 
 
 “Let Bernie outraise her — he’s not going to be the nominee,” a top donor said. “The idea that Donald Trump or Ted Cruz could actually be the president is going to be the greatest fundraising mechanism in the history of the world, and it’s just too early for that.” 
 
 A sign that Clinton’s donors are more eager to donate to a general election campaign than a primary they see as already in the bag was the success of the high-dollar Victory Fund event last week. There, donors wrote $32,400 checks that are split between the national and state Democratic parties. 
 
 Still, Sanders’ surge has less to do with a Clinton swoon — she’s raising cash at a respectable clip — than the Vermont independent’s wildfire appeal to small-money donors, which reminds many Clinton veterans of Barack Obama’s surprising fundraising prowess during the 2008 campaign. 
 
 For its part, Sanders’ campaign has been touting its large number of small contributions as a sign of the grass-roots power behind his candidacy. On Saturday, Sanders announced his campaign broke a record by bringing in more individual contributions than any presidential candidate in history — even topping the 2.2 million donations Obama received by the end of 2011 during his reelection campaign. Plus, Sanders’ team says it raised more than $1 million after the Democratic National Committee temporarily suspended the campaign’s access to its own voter files over a data breach last week. 
 
 Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver on Monday refused to comment on whether he expected to outpace Clinton’s fundraising by the end of the year. 
 
 While Sanders has been building up a grass-roots list of small donors who can be tapped and tapped again for donations throughout the campaign, Clinton’s team targeted its list of core supporters early and had many donors write the maximum checks of $2,700 months ago. “Those of us who snap to attention when she snaps her fingers — they tapped into that a long time ago,” said one top Clinton donor who has hosted a house party for the candidate. 
 
 But the campaign is aware that maxing out its donors early could become a long-term issue and is actively trying to court a new crowd. It has dispatched high-profile surrogates like former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, political consultant James Carville and former Clinton aide Lisa Caputo to host “salons” — free events where they talk about the campaign and take questions from attendees, hoping to inspire fresh donor faces to become involved. 
 
 “This was part of a series of events with surrogates meant to encourage new raisers and donors to get involved in the campaign and grow our network,” a campaign official said of the free events. 
 
 Even if Clinton manages to make up lost ground between now and year’s end, Sanders’ success with grass-roots donors and Clinton’s dependence on the big-money contributors her opponent decries as out-of-touch plutocrats creates a PR problem for her campaign. 
 
 “About 3 percent of my donations come from people in the finance and investment world,” she said at Saturday’s debate, playing defense against Sanders’ charge that she is a tool of Wall Street. “I have more donations from students and teachers than I do from people associated with Wall Street.” 
 
 But the truth is, her campaign and the super PAC supporting her received $5.7 million from the securities and investments industry, out of $97.8 million total. That’s almost 6 percent. It’s closer to 3 percent if you only count fundraising by her official campaign. But in the context of a clash with Sanders, who doesn’t have an allied super PAC, it’s misleading to overlook hers. 
 
 Isaac Arnsdorf contributed to this report. ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — Jeb Bush raised $13.4 million over the summer for his Republican presidential bid — more than almost any other primary competitor, but far less than political newcomer Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who collected about $20 million during the same time period. 
 
 Esther Alvarado, left, and Maria Anita Monsivaiz, right, hold portraits they created of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton during a campaign event, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015, in San... (Associated Press) 
 
 Meanwhile, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the two leading Democrats in the 2016 race, each raised more than any of the Republicans between July 1 and Sept. 30. 
 
 One major revelation from the latest batch of presidential fundraising reports, filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission: Donald Trump is no longer a self-funded candidate. The celebrity billionaire who has sat atop GOP polls in recent months raised $3.9 million in the latest fundraising quarter, only $100,000 of which came from his own pocket. That's a drastic shift from his springtime fundraising report, when he loaned his campaign nearly all of the $1.9 million it had. 
 
 Here's what else we learned from the new fundraising reports: 
 
 ___ 
 
 CLINTON, SANDERS RAISE ABOUT THE SAME AMOUNT — IN DIFFERENT WAYS 
 
 Clinton's campaign raised $29 million in the three months ending Sept. 30. That's less than what she raised in the early months of her campaign, but more than any previous non-incumbent Democratic presidential primary contestant in the third quarter of the year before Election Day. 
 
 Most of the money came in through dozens of traditional fundraising events, where the price of entry was often the legal maximum donation of $2,700. 
 
 Sanders brought in about $26 million, largely through small contributions collected online. People giving $200 or less accounted for a staggering three-quarters of his money. He continues to show off his fundraising prowess, harvesting more than $2.5 million in new contributions in the hours that followed Tuesday night's Democratic debate. 
 
 "We are doing it the old-fashioned way: 650,000 individual contributions," Sanders said in his closing statement of that appearance, adding: "We are averaging 30 bucks apiece. We would appreciate your help." 
 
 ___ 
 
 CARSON THE EARLY LEADER IN GOP CONTEST 
 
 Lots of Republican voters sent a message in preference polls this summer that they want an outsider as their nominee. That's reflected in how they're giving to the candidates, too. 
 
 Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson posted the best haul of the dozen-plus candidates in the GOP field, with about $20 million. But his campaign also spent heavily, burning through $14 million over the same time period. 
 
 Carson spent most of that money raising money. He ended September with about $11 million in available cash. 
 
 One of Carson's closest fundraising competitors is Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, whose campaign raised $12.2 million in the third quarter and ended the month with $13.5 million in the bank. Although he has been a senator since 2012, Cruz also is running as an outsider, with a focus on the many times he has broken with Senate Republican leadership over issues such as shutting down the government to defund implementation of the Affordable Care Act. 
 
 Former technology executive Carly Fiorina, who has never held elected office, raised $6.8 million for her campaign — four times as much as she collected at the start of her campaign. Her boost came after strong debate performances that also led to a rise in some national preference polls. 
 
 ___ 
 
 LOWER FIGURES FOR OTHERS IN GOP 
 
 Others in the Republican race found the summer months a tough slog for fundraising. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul raised $2.5 million and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio about $6 million. Paul recently devoted time to a separate bid to keep his Senate seat, leading some to question if he's still in the White House race. 
 
 "I wouldn't be doing this dumb-ass livestreaming if I weren't," Paul said in a recent Internet video. "So, yes, I still am running for president. So get over it." 
 
 In a memo to supporters Thursday, the Paul campaign continued to provide assurance that it is "here to stay." The candidate raised almost $1 million in the 12 days after the September debate, the memo says. 
 
 Rubio's campaign argues that it can make its money go the distance because of its extreme frugality. The campaign told top donors that it began October with $11 million socked away, although FEC filings show more than $1 million of that is earmarked for the general election, meaning he can't spend it as he seeks to win the GOP nomination. 
 
 As evidence of its tight ship, Rubio's campaign manager Terry Sullivan has said he must personally approve all expenses over $500. Rubio is also getting a boost from a nonprofit group that doesn't disclose its donors. While the campaign hasn't purchased any television commercials, the group Conservative Solutions Project has already spent millions of dollars on ads. 
 
 ___ 
 
 DROP-OUTS — AND THOSE BARELY HANGING ON 
 
 Weighing on these lower-raising candidates are the fates of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Both dropped out of the 2016 Republican nominating contest for lack of funds. 
 
 Federal reports filed Thursday show Perry raised less than $300,000 between July 1 and Sept. 11, when he ended his campaign. It had about $45,000 left in the bank at the end of last month, FEC documents show. 
 
 Walker, despite having raised $7.4 million in the summer months, quickly burned through the money and dropped out 10 days after Perry. He closed September with less than $1 million in available cash — not enough to cover the nearly 100 employees on his payroll. 
 
 The FEC filings also show that others are quickly running out of cash. 
 
 At the start of this month, former New York Gov. George Pataki had just $13,500 and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore had about $34,000. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee were in better shape — but each had less than $800,000 in cash on hand. 
 
 ___ 
 
 HOTLY ANTICIPATED REPORTS 
 
 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich both entered the Republican race later than the other candidates, meaning Thursday provided the first look at their fundraising. 
 
 Christie's campaign raised $4.2 million in recent months and had $1.4 million cash on hand at the end of September. Although the haul puts him in the lower tier of Republican fundraisers, Christie played down the importance of money. "We're doing fine," Christie recently said during a swing through New Hampshire. "I'm proud of what we did in the third quarter fundraising, which is always a really difficult quarter given the summer and everything else." 
 
 Kasich raised about $4.4 million and had $2.6 million left to spend as the month began. 
 
 On the Democratic side, though Sanders and Clinton dominated the fundraising race, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley netted almost $1.3 million in new contributions, closing the quarter with $806,000 left. 
 
 ___ 
 
 WHAT WE WON'T LEARN: THE BIGGEST DONORS 
 
 Only the official campaigns face a Thursday fundraising reporting deadline. Their super PAC counterparts can wait until January to disclose their newest financial details and donor names. 
 
 While contributors can give a maximum of $2,700 per election to campaigns, they face no such restrictions with super PACs. Those groups must be legally separate from the campaigns, but are often stacked with a candidate's most trusted aides. 
 
 As of June 30, super PACs and other outside groups tailored to presidential candidates had raised more than three times as much as the candidates themselves. 
 
 ___ 
 
 AP writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Follow Julie Bykowicz on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/bykowicz
– Bernie Sanders is raising a lot more money than many people expected, and he's doing it a lot faster. His campaign announced just before the Wednesday filing deadline that it has received more than a million online donations, making him the first 2016 candidate to pass that milestone and the first ever to pass it so early, reports the Wall Street Journal, which notes that the Obama campaigns got there in February 2008 and October 2011. According to the filing, Sanders' fundraising is rapidly catching up with Hillary Clinton's, with the Vermont senator raising $25 million in the third quarter of this year, not far off the $28 million his rival raised during the same period, although her second-quarter numbers were much higher, CNN reports. Most of Clinton's cash in the third quarter came from the 58 fundraising events she headlined that asked donors to pay $2,700, CNN reports, while almost all of Sanders' take came from the online operation, which had an average donation of $24.86. But he has had to spend money to make money: The New York Times estimates that the Sanders campaign has already spent $15 million, mostly on hiring staff and on online fundraising, without spending much on commercials or polling. Politico calls his haul "eye-popping" and notes that it undercuts arguments that Sanders couldn't compete with a well-funded Republican. Clinton, however, has affiliated super PACs on her side and Sanders shuns such groups. (Polls show that Clinton is falling behind in New Hampshire.)