The amounts raised and spent by the major candidates, according to the same source, were as follows: Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama created a broad grassroots movement and a new method of campaigning by courting and mobilizing activists, donations, and voters through the Internet (see grassroots fundraising).
Obama also set fundraising records in more than one month by gaining support from a record-breaking number of individual small donors.
[4] Although he had said he would not be running for president, published reports in 2007 indicated that billionaire and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg had been considering a presidential bid as an independent with up to $1 billion of his own fortune to finance it.
Major Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama chose not to participate in the public financing system.
Fundraising plays a central role in many presidential campaigns and is a key factor in determining the viability of candidates.
Under United States law, candidates are required to file campaign finance details with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) at the end of every calendar quarter.
Summaries of these reports are made available to the public shortly thereafter, revealing the relative financial situations of all the campaigns.
[19] Quarterly FEC reports summarize the total contributions (from individuals, political party committees, other political committees, and the candidate), loans, receipts (incoming money), and disbursements (outgoing money) for the election cycle.
These values are largely composed of campaign contributions, but also include offsets to expenditures (refunds, rebates, etc.)