Governor Schwarzenegger would like to prohibit donors from giving money to legislators while they are negotiating the budget.  An analysis by the San Francisco Chronicle suggests that most donations come outside of this period to begin with:

Last year, between the May 12 release of the governor's revised budget plan and the July 1 adoption, there were 128 fundraisers by legislators, the governor and other state officeholders.

Since January, already there have been 104 even though only a handful of legislative floor sessions have been held.

A review of the Legislature's two leaders -- Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland -- shows that neither relies much on the budget period for raising money.

Núñez raised $5 million last year in his candidate committee but received only $208,000 of that total during the budget session. In 2005, he raised $850,000 -- about half of it during the budget period.

Perata's committee organized to support ballot measures raised $8.7 million last year, but $276,000 came during the budget period. In 2005, that same committee received almost $450,000 in contributions, but just $5,000 came during the budget debate.

Small donors are using the Internet to organize themselves and pool small contributions into big bundles they can give candidates, much the way lobbyists and other fat cats do.  Some reformers have decried bundling as inherently bad, but perhaps it has more to do with the size of the donations that are bundled.  See this story in the Washington Post:

With the first primary votes still 10 months away, Edwards's presidential campaign has collected more than $1 million in donations assembled by ActBlue. Fellow Democrat Bill Richardson, the New Mexico governor, has gathered more than $300,000 through the same Web site....

The Pew Internet and American Life Project found last year that 73 percent of Americans -- about 147 million adults -- now use the Internet 

 

similar site, called ABC PAC, has been developed by Republicans. It didn't catch on in 2006, but it is being retooled for the 2008 campaigns. Cornfield said Democrats hold a healthy lead because early investments in the technology were "part of an attempt to match what conservatives had with talk radio and direct mail for years."

Still, of the 60 million people who visited candidate Web sites in 2006, Cornfield said, only 1 in 20 donated money. That has left "tremendous room for growth" for both parties, he added.