US Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), who's up for reelection this year, says she raised $1.23 million in the first quarter of 2012, bringing her total raised to more than $9 million. She also has $4.6 million cash on hand.

That'd be impressive enough; her main GOP opponent, state Sen. Michael Baumgartner (D-6, Spokane) had only raised $122,000 total at last report with $99,000 cash on hand (I'm still waiting for the updated first quarter numbers from him).

But what's more: Cantwell, a wonky populist who voted against the bank bailouts and pushed Obama's Wall Street reforms to the left, 88 percent of this quarter's take came from small donors—contributions of $100 or less.