“The idea of candidates hitting the campaign trail and raising the money they need for their efforts often conjures up images of people knocking on doors and asking their friends and neighbors for financial support,” states the report. “But the hard reality differes greatly. Most candidates and even more political party and ballot committees rely heavily on large contributions from a realatively smal number of contributors to finance their campaigns.”

Just five percent of the contributions collected by state candidates for office came from small “unitemized” contributions. This is more than the 3.4 percent in unitemized contributions collected by state political parties and the less than one percent in such contributions collected by committees backing ballot initiatives, according to an analysis of contributions in the 2004 and 2005 elections.

Unitemized contributions are contributions that fall under the particular state’s threshold for reporting details about the donor’s name and other identifying information. Instead these contributions are reported as lump sums. The threshold levels vary by state.