The number of donors who raise big money for President Barack Obama jumped in the last three months as he builds a war chest for what will likely be the costliest presidential election ever. 
 
 At least 41 people have raised at least half a million dollars for the president, compared to 27 in Obama's first report, according to an analysis of campaign data released Friday. 
 
 The big donors, known as "bundlers," are typically well-connected people who pledge to gather tens of thousands of dollars for a candidate. 
 
 Former Goldman Sachs executive Jon Corzine and Dreamworks Animation chief executive executive Jeffrey Katzenberg are on Obama's elite list and raised $500,000 or more. 
 
 The president's campaign finance report shows he can still pull in major cash despite a stagnant economy, dipping approval ratings and grumblings among some liberal supporters that he has not done enough for their cause. 
 
 While still keeping ties to his famed small donor operation, Obama is relying heavily on major donors early on to finance a campaign that is likely to break records in spending, according to Anthony Corrado, a campaign finance expert at Colby College in Maine. 
 
 "The emphasis has been on doing larger dollar fundraising events particularly asking for $2,500," Corrado said. "Events like this help him to raise substantial amounts of money for the campaign allowing him to exceed his pace for 2007." 
 
 GOP ahead in polls 
 
 Obama and the Democratic National Committee have raised more than $150 million so far for his bid for a second term, far outstripping Obama's Republican rivals. 
 
 But fundraising prowess doesn't guarantee victory for the incumbent, who is fighting for re-election amid a economic stagnation and high unemployment. 
 
 Opinion polls show that Obama will have a tough time winning re-election next year. A Gallup poll released on Friday showed that U.S. registered voters, by 46 percent to 38 percent, are more likely to vote for an unnamed Republican presidential candidate than for Obama in 2012. Obama recently called himself the "underdog" in the race. 
 
 Bundlers raised about a third of Obama's war chest so far. 
 
 Earlier on Friday, Republican Mitt Romney posted $14 million for the quarter, second to fellow Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry's $17 million. Obama's comparable fundraising figure for the three months was $43 million. 
 
 Obama voluntarily releases a list of bundlers. No other major candidate has done so. 
 
 The president regularly brings in more than $1 million in a single evening of fundraising, as supporters donate the legal maximum of $35,800 to his campaign and the Democratic party for the chance to have dinner and take a picture with the president. 
 
 UBS executive Robert Wolf and hedge fund executive Orin Kramer are also big Obama fundraisers. 
 
 'Doing well with small donors' 
 
 At least 40 percent of all the money raised by the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee last quarter came from those giving in increments of $200 or less. 
 
 The Obama campaign has been touting its connections to mainstream Americans who send smaller checks, calling itself a grassroots effort. 
 
 "They are still doing well with small donors," said Darrell West, director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a thank tank. 
 
 The campaign said that in the third quarter about 600,000 people donated to the campaign. 
 
 Much has been made of dipping support among Wall Street for Obama. Some financial executives, including hedge fund managers, have complained about Obama's tax and financial regulation policies and his comments about the wealthy, at times calling them "fat cats." 
 
 In the second quarter, more Wall Street money did flow to Romney, who has deep ties there. Still, Obama boosted the number of bundlers with Wall Street ties in that period. 
 
 The Republican candidates' reports, due Saturday, offer the first broad look at their financial health. 
 
 They are the first official tallies of donations and expenses for contenders Perry, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and businessman Herman Cain, who said he raised $2.8 million this quarter. 
 
 Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, had nearly $15 million on hand in addition to the roughly $14 million in contributions during the July-September period that he reported Friday. 
 
 Perry, who briefly surged to the top of the Republican presidential field this summer, has roughly the same in the bank. 
 
 Not counting major support from Republican-leaning super political action committees, the virtual tie between Romney and Perry for cash on hand means the two have similar amounts to spend on ads and travel just months before heading into key primary states. 
 
 Perry is expected to dig into his campaign funds to buy TV ads to Romney's record on health care, abortion, gay rights and job creation. His campaign suggested this week that the moment for a barrage of attack ads was near. 
 
 Romney, the former governor of a predominantly Democratic state, has been attacked for his shifting positions on social issues that are held dear by conservative voters who dominate the Republican primary season. ||||| It is no secret that the relationship between President Obama and Wall Street has chilled. A striking measure of that is the latest campaign finance reports. 
 
 Mitt Romney has raised far more money than Mr. Obama this year from the firms that have been among Wall Street’s top sources of donations for the two candidates. 
 
 That gap underscores the growing alienation from Mr. Obama among many rank-and-file financial professionals and Mr. Romney’s aggressive and successful efforts to woo them. 
 
 The imbalance exists at large investment banks and hedge funds, private equity firms and commercial banks, according to a New York Times analysis of the firms that accounted for the most campaign contributions from the industry to Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama in 2008, based on data from the Federal Election Commission and the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. 
 
 It could widen as Mr. Obama, seeking to harness anger over growing income inequality, escalates his criticism of the industry, after a year spent trying to smooth ties bruised by efforts to impose tougher regulations. 
 
 Since this spring, Mr. Romney has raised $1.5 million from employees of firms like Morgan Stanley; Highbridge Capital Management, a hedge fund; and Blackstone, a private equity firm. Mr. Obama has raised just over $270,000 from firms that were among his leading sources of campaign cash in 2008. 
 
 Employees of Goldman Sachs, who in the 2008 campaign gave Mr. Obama over $1 million — more than donors from any other private employer in the country — have given him about $45,000 this year. Mr. Romney has raised about $350,000 from the firm’s employees. 
 
 Those figures do not account for all Wall Street giving, nor for the full force of each candidate’s robust network of Wall Street “bundlers,” wealthy individuals who raise money from friends, family members and business associates. And Mr. Obama continues to dominate Mr. Romney — and the rest of the Republican field — in overall fund-raising. He has raised close to $100 million so far this year for his campaign, three times more than Mr. Romney, as well as $65 million for the Democratic National Committee. 
 
 The gap in Wall Street giving to Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney underscores disenchantment with Mr. Obama in the industry and the challenges both candidates will face in grappling with public anger about the financial world. 
 
 For much of the last year, aides to Mr. Obama have sought to mollify Wall Street executives still bristling over the president’s criticisms of their profits and bonuses, while defending the administration’s program of tougher oversight and regulation as both necessary and beneficial to the industry in the long term. 
 
 But with Mr. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor who once ran the private equity firm Bain Capital, the candidate many in Mr. Obama’s camp believe is his most likely Republican opponent next fall, Mr. Obama’s campaign appears to sense an opportunity to harness public resentment over an industry that has largely thrived while the rest of the economy has not. 
 
 “There’s no doubt that Governor Romney has raised money off of his belief that Wall Street should be allowed to write its own rules again by repealing Wall Street reform,” said Ben LaBolt, an Obama campaign spokesman. “The president put in place protections to ensure that the financial crisis is not repeated and that unacceptable risks aren’t taken with Americans’ life savings.” 
 
 For his part, Mr. Romney is now pitching himself as the turnaround expert for an ailing national economy. He has personally wooed major Wall Street donors, successfully recruiting several senior financial executives poised to back Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey had he opted for a White House bid. 
 
 But anger at big banks — manifested by the growing Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City and elsewhere — is palpable enough that Mr. Romney must avoid being seen as a friend of an industry that many Americans blame for onerous bank fees and underwater mortgages.
– President Obama's big-money "bundlers" are on the rise, with at least 41 supporters now having raised more than $500,000 each for the president, reports MSNBC. That's a sizeable jump from the 27 bundlers—well-connected supporters who help candidates raise big money—reported three months ago. It's also a sign that we're getting closer to the 2012 election season, predicted to be the most expensive ever. "The emphasis has been on doing larger dollar fundraising events, particularly asking for $2,500," said a campaign finance expert. "Events like this help him to raise substantial amounts of money for the campaign allowing him to exceed his pace for 2007." Obama and the DNC have raised more than $165 million so far, well ahead of the Republican field—however, the really big money of Wall Street is increasingly lining up behind Mitt Romney and the GOP, reports the New York Times. Since the spring, Romney has raised more than $1.5 million from banks, hedge funds, and other financial firms; Obama, however, has gotten just $270,000. Goldman Sachs employees alone gave Obama more than $1 million in 2008, but so far in this election cycle, he's gotten just $45,000; Romney, on the other hand, has received $350,000 from them.