Lest there be any doubt that congressional fundraising records will fall in the Democrats' efforts to unseat conservative icon Michele Bachmann, State Sen. Tarryl Clark announced Tuesday that she's surpassed the million-dollar mark.

The St. Cloud DFLer becomes the first non-incumbent U.S. House candidate in Minnesota history to top $1 million at this point in an election year.
A week after winning the DFL endorsement, Clark released preliminary figures showing she has raised a total of $1.1 million since entering the race last July. Half of that amount – $505,000 – was raised in the past three months. Clark's take comes off a base of 12,000 contributors, the campaign said. Full first-quarter 2010 reports aren't due to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) until next week. Neither Bachmann nor DFLer Maureen Reed, who is also in the race, has released preliminary totals so far. But previous reports show that Clark still has some work to do to catch up with Bachmann, who used her birthday today to pitch for more dollars. Her rally tomorrow with Sarah Palin probably won't hurt her cause either. Bachmann's campaign ended 2009 with over $1 million in the bank, having raised a total of $1,552,864 for the election. Of that, $591,600 was raised in the last three months of the year. With a national fundraising base helped by her frequent appearances on cable news and at Tea Party events, Bachmann is expected to keep posting formidable numbers. Once the full reports are in April 15, the public will get a chance to assess how much of the money flooding into Minnesota's Sixth District race comes from outside the state, a measure of how "national" the contest might get.