Obama Raises A Whopping $42 Million in Third Quarter, Laughs all the Way to the Bank.

Surpassing the expectations by members of his own party, the Obama re-election campaign raised $42.8 million in the period running from July through the end of September, an Obama campaign aide told CNN. The campaign announced publicly Thursday that along with the Democratic National Committee it brought in more than $70 million in the third quarter of fundraising.

Some Democratic sources had said they expected the combined total to be around $55 million.

The $42 million figure likely will be close to, or exceed the total raised by all of the Republican presidential candidates together for this quarter.

Campaigns have to report their amounts to the Federal Election Commission by Saturday. The Obama campaign and the DNC raised a record breaking $86 million in the last fundraising quarter that ended in June.

During the most recent quarter the Obama team had to deal with questions about whether key constituencies of the Democratic party base were fully supportive of President Obama, especially after a nasty confrontation over raising the nation's debt ceiling which resulted in an agreement that upset many in the progressive movement. The unstable economy has made it more difficult for all of the campaigns to raise funds during this time.

The president has had to cancel several fundraising events to stay in Washington due to the debt ceiling fight.  Obama unveiled his jobs proposal last month and displayed an aggressive stance toward congressional Republicans - moves that were applauded by many Democratic activists.

From July to September the Obama team reported that 606,000 people donated to the campaign - more than in the second fundraising quarter between April and June when it set a record for the number of donors. And it said of the 766,000 donations, 98% were $250 or less – a key figure as it tries to keep attracting the small donors who were a major driver for the 2008 campaign. One of the ways the campaign tried to woo small donors was to sponsor a contest with the prize being a dinner with Obama.

Overall, the campaign said since the president announced his re-election bid this spring, almost 983,000 individuals made donations, with 258,000 of them making their first contribution.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney raised $14.16 million in the 3rd quarter, and has $14.65 million on hand, according to financial numbers released today by the former Massachusetts governor's presidential campaign. Overall, Romney has raised a total of $32 million for the GOP presidential primary.

The total represents only primary contributions as the campaign did not raise general election funds, the campaign emphasizes. By comparison in 2007, Romney collected $10 million for the third quarter reporting period. Texas governor and GOP rival for the nomination Rick Perry raised $17 million in the same quarter-- his first full fundraising period as a presidential candidate. "Seems like they spend a lot of money and have little to show for it," tweaked Mark Miner, a Perry spokesman.