A key component in the Democratic presidential race is all but decided: In fund raising, victory belongs to Sen. Barack Obama.

As recently as a few months ago, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton had a seemingly invincible money machine -- a political ATM of well-connected followers who could raise tens of thousands of dollars with a few phone calls. But just as Sen. Obama has topped her at the polls, the Illinois senator's Internet-driven fund-raising model has eclipsed the one favored by the Clinton campaign.

Sen. Obama overtook Sen. Clinton in total fund raising in February and has raised more since. The New York senator, meanwhile, has loaned herself $6.4 million in the past few weeks, her campaign acknowledged Wednesday.

The political battle between the two candidates has been framed as one of experience versus youth, old against new. In the money hunt, Sen. Clinton has focused on the tried-and-true practice of bundling, which relies on a few hundred well-connected money raisers to wrench maximum contributions from donors. Sen. Obama has largely abandoned bundling, instead drawing on a Web-based cadre of hundreds of thousands of more modest givers.

To be sure, the Clinton campaign has raised twice as much money as observers thought it would need a year ago. And key supporters say the machine keeps spinning cash. New York financier Hassan Nemazee, a Clinton bundler and a finance chairman of her campaign, helped stage a fund-raising event in Texas last month that brought in $150,000. "I can still raise hundreds of thousands of dollars a month,'' Mr. Nemazee says.

But by comparison, Sen. Obama's army of small donors "can raise a quarter million dollars in an hour," concedes Yashar Hedayat, a Los Angeles businessman and a Clinton finance co-chairman. While he says he continues to raise tens of thousands of dollars a month for the campaign, he says the Internet has changed the face of fund raising. "The era of bundlers may be over -- or at least rendered far less important," he says.

Fund-raising data from March, the latest available, tell much of the story. The Obama campaign raised more than $220,000 on every day of the month from donors contributing $200 or more. It raised at least $1 million on each of nine different days. The total haul: $40 million.

Daily Haul

The Clinton campaign's lowest daily haul, by contrast, was $5,990. It surpassed $1 million on only three days. For the month it raised $20 million, not counting a $5 million loan the candidate made to herself.

Sen. Obama's grass-roots Web campaign is similar to one employed by Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Sen. John Kerry in 2004. Instead of targeting large donors, the Obama camp seeks contributions from donors who pony up $100 or less at a time. The campaign collects emails from donors and rally attendees and puts them on a rolling list for appeals. Sen. Obama received a boost in January when Sen. Kerry endorsed him and gave him access to a closely held list of email addresses for hundreds of thousands of contributors, according to an Obama aide.

Obama donors can sign up for a "recurring gift" program, which debits as little as $25 a month from their accounts until they reach the federal limit. Such Internet fund raising, unlike expensive gala events for donors, costs pennies per patron.

The Clinton campaign raises money online, too, and it recently stepped up its Internet fund raising. But the Clinton camp has generally sought bigger fish. Her bundlers, called Hillraisers, employed a strategy honed by President Bush and since adopted by most major candidates. With personal connections and deep contact lists, effective bundlers hit up friends and associates for donations up to the federal limit of $2,300 per candidate. Hillraisers included supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle and New York hedge-fund executive Steven Rattner. Another was Norman Hsu, who awaits trial for fraud charges. (The campaign returned Hsu-related contributions last year.)

For the first 13 months, the Clinton fund-raising machine performed spectacularly. Hillraisers pulled in more than $140 million, a record for that early stage of a presidential campaign. Among those most responsible was bundler Chris Korge, a Miami developer who has raised more than $20 million for Democratic causes and candidates over the years. Mr. Korge hosted 15 Clinton fund-raisers, including an event last spring that raised more than $900,000 for her in a night.

Perks for Donors

To maintain interest and camaraderie among bundlers, the Clinton campaign provides perks for its best donors. They get rooms on the same floor as Sen. Clinton on the night of victory parties, or tickets to events such as Sen. Clinton's recent New York fund-raiser that featured Elton John. For working on the campaign of ex-president Bill Clinton, fund-raiser Mr. Korge earned himself a night in the Lincoln Bedroom.

Now, as the Clinton campaign flags, Mr. Korge's latest idea is an out-of-the-box twist on an old-school event: A 5-kilometer "fun run" for Hillary on May 31. He says he has commitments for about $25,000 in donations and believes he will double that by post time.

"We could do this all over the country and raise millions," says Mr. Korge. "We want to try to stay busy.''

But weariness is evident in the Hillraiser ranks. The machine designed to seal Sen. Clinton's nomination was designed more as a sprint than a marathon. Many of the campaign's targets have already given the maximum $2,300 for the primary allowable under federal law.

"This was supposed to be over by now but every quarter they set another goal," says Clinton bundler Alan Kessler, a Philadelphia lawyer. "I think we're all pretty tired."

Care and feeding of the increasingly jaded Hillraisers falls to Jonathan Mantz, the campaign's finance director. On election eve of the Pennsylvania primary in April, scene of the last grand Clinton victory, Mr. Mantz could be found in the bar section of the Palms restaurant in downtown Philadelphia, a small tick-sheet in his hand. He was coordinating the election-night pool, in which the gathered Hillraisers made a prediction of Sen. Clinton's margin of victory that evening. The buy-in: $20 a person. "I'll take 10.3%,'' Mr. Korge shouted. (She won by 9.2 percentage points.)

Some of the big-time raisers have also taken to the streets to help Sen. Clinton as their fund-raising abilities tapped out. Mr. Hedayat was among a contingent of West Coast Clinton backers who spent several days in Pennsylvania before last month's primary there. He and his compatriots campaigned door-to-door, spoke at small rallies and even held up pro-Hillary signs on street corners.

If Sen. Clinton loses, what happens to her fund-raisers? In any normal political season, Mr. Korge and others would sign on with the last candidate standing. In 2004, Mr. Korge backed then-Florida Sen. Bob Graham, who made a brief run at the nomination. Then he shifted to then-Rep. Richard Gephart, who eventually was vanquished by Sen. John Kerry. Mr. Korge then went on to raise some $3 million for Sen. Kerry.

Party Man

That may not happen this time. "I'm a party man, and plan to support the nominee, whoever it may be," Mr. Korge says. "Will I go flat-out for Obama? I'm not sure Obama needs folks like me."

If Sen. Obama secures the nomination, the next test for his money-making network will be whether it can keep running. This fall, presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain says he will opt for $84 million in public financing. That will be supplemented by heavy spending from the Republican Party and sympathetic independent organizations.

Campaign-finance records through January suggest that while Sen. McCain may be lagging far behind Sens. Clinton and Obama in receipts, the Republican party as a whole has received $493 million this political cycle through January, versus $568 million for the Democrats, roughly keeping pace.

Mr. McCain, spared a protracted primary battle, has until recently done little fund-raising of his own. That is changing: On Wednesday, he staged an event on Wall Street that was expected to set its own record, a single-night haul of $7 million, the campaign says.