Some welcome news for Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd — he’s blowing his competitors out of the water in fundraising. Here’s the breakdown from the Courant:

Chris Dodd:

Dodd raised about $1.05 million in the first quarter of 2009, leaving him with a cash balance of nearly $1.4 million, according to a fundraising report he filed Wednesday with the Federal Elections Commission.

Sam Caligiuri:

Caligiuri reported collecting about $45,000 over the first quarter, mostly from individuals. After expenses, Caligiuri reported a balance of about $36,000.

Rob Simmons:

An aide said the Simmons campaign only recently opened a bank account and had no meaningful fundraising to report.

Also, there’s this key point for where Dodd’s money does not come from:

Notably, Dodd’s first-quarter fundraising report for the 2010 U.S. Senate election reflects no AIG contributions. …

Dodd returned $12,500 in contributions from political action committees or employees associated with firms benefiting from federal bailout money. He gave $1,000 that he received from an executive receiving an AIG bonus to a Mystic homeless shelter. Dodd also donated $2,500 that he received from convicted investment swindler Bernard Madoff to the Elie Wiesel Foundation.

Dodd had a much better quarter than I would have expected and this puts him on good footing to weather the serious challenge he has coming. It also shows that the Republicans challenging him are not yet able to turn their big media profiles into campaign contributions.