In the second fund-raising quarter, which ended on Tuesday at midnight, 1st Congressional District candidate Martin Heinrich was among the top Democratic Internet fund-raisers nationwide. The list included Presidential candidates, Senate candidates and Congressional candidates.

ActBlue, a Web site that serves as the chief Internet fund-raising Web site for Democrats running for office, released its second-quarter numbers this week, including top-10 lists in a variety of categories.

In overall money raised, Heinrich ranked eighth in total second-quarter contributions.

"I’m deeply gratified by the overwhelming support I’ve received online from people all over New Mexico," Heinrich said by e-mail to the Independent. 

His Republican opponent, Darren White, also did well, according to his campaign.

"We do not have numbers available for our second quarter report yet," Sara Lister, campaign manager for White, responded in an e-mail to the Independent, "but we are very excited about the fact that this quarter was our strongest online fundraising quarter to date."

Heinrich raised $147,564.20 through ActBlue in the second quarter. Much of the donations to Heinrich came from a fund-raising push at the end of the quarter; the campaign initially sought to raise $35,000 before the end of the quarter. The campaign ended up raising nearly $100,000 because of the fundraising campaign, according to the campaign’s blog.

The fund-raising campaign was announced on June 19. One lucky donor would win a hike with Heinrich on one of his favorite trails. This is not the first time the Heinrich campaign used unique fund-raising techniques. Previous contests included a Thanksgiving pie giveaway and a lunch with the candidate.

ActBlue says the numbers on the final day of the quarter were particularly impressive. Heinrich raised over $30,000 on that day.

"Remarkably," said the site’s blog, "the last day of the quarter brought in 28% of Joseph Sestak’s total quarterly contributions, and 21% of Martin Heinrich’s." Sestak is running for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District.

White has had several traditional fund-raising events. Most notable was a visit by President George W Bush that benefited both White and the state Republican party. More recently White reportedly had a fund-raiser with Heather Wilson, the current U.S. representative from the 1st Congressional district. There were no reports on the money raised from the event at Wilson’s Albuquerque home.