COLUMBIA--Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's presidential campaign says his knack for winning small donations shows he's building grass-roots support in South Carolina for the Feb. 3 Democratic primary.

Dean has raised about $21,000 from South Carolinians who gave less than $200 during the second-quarter of fund raising, his campaign said Wednesday. That puts him second overall in the state behind North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.

Howard Dean

The smaller donations show Dean's candidacy is bringing people into politics, campaign spokeswoman Courtney O'Donnell said. "So many people have been drawn back into the political process by being introduced to Governor Dean and his message," she said.

With average donations of $88, that "speaks to the fact that this is not a $2,000-a-plate type of campaign," she said.

Among larger donors, those giving more than $200, Dean raised $15,375 during the second quarter, a fraction of the $79,192 North Carolina Sen. John Edwards reported. Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman raised $22,400. Among small donors, Edwards' campaign says it raised $7,682 and Lieberman raised $3,800.

Dean's small donors don't rattle Edwards' campaign. "It's a different strategy," Edwards spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said. "He has spent most of the past six months in the public's eye and we haven't."

"Different campaigns are going to have different fund-raising strategies," Lieberman spokesman Jano Cabrera said. "We're very proud of our second-quarter showing," he said.

Dean's South Carolina campaign chairman, state Rep. David Mack, D-Charleston, said the numbers say a good deal about Dean's support in the state.

"The small donations are from, really, community people who can touch five or six of their friends, can touch people who are neighborhood organizers," Mack said. "That's a good grass-roots base."

That base is important here, where Democrats are trying to recover from losses in November. Some blame those losses on relying too much on television-based, rather than neighborhood-based campaigning.

The small donors for Dean show those grass-roots contacts are being made, Mack said.

Dean's fund-raising in South Carolina is "extraordinary," said Neal Thigpen, a Francis Marion University political science professor.

Dean's opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq and support of same-sex unions, puts him at odds with what people think of as typical South Carolina voters, Thigpen said.