Hillary Clinton starts fall with $33 million in cash reserves

Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton is raising and spending more than any other White House candidate, as she races to build a substantial field operation in her second bid for the presidency.

Her campaign amassed nearly $29.5 during the third quarter, most of which can be used for the primary fight, and her aides quickly burned through $25.8 million in those three months.

Despite the heavy spending, Clinton headed into the fall campaign with $33 million in available cash reserves for the nomination battle, edging past the $27 million rival Bernie Sanders had in leftover money at the start of October.

No other candidate -- Democrat or Republican -- had stockpiled as much money as Clinton for the race that may ultimately cost more than $2 billion.

Clinton and Sanders have set a blistering fundraising pace, racing past the leading Republican candidates over the summer and building big donor pools. Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, has parlayed his popularity with liberals into a substantial campaign war chest, raising more than $26 million during the quarter.

He claims 650,000 donors; Clinton said she has roughly 400,000.

The closest rival to the Democrats in fundraising: Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who collected more than $20 million between July and September, 60% of which came in amounts smaller than $200. Candidates favored by the Republican establishment, including former Florida governor Jeb Bush, lagged far behind.

One of Clinton's largest expenses during the third quarter: staff. Roughly $8.7 million -- more than a third of her operating costs -- went to payroll and related expenses.