Blanche Lincoln (Getty)

Sen. Blanche Lincoln ,an Arkansas Democrat, raised $1.7 million during the year’s first quarter for her 2010 re-election bid.  

Her campaign organization deemed the figure impressive enough to release it on Thursday — 10 days before the federal deadline for candidates to file reports on their Jan. 1-March 31 campaign finance activity.  

Lincoln, who is gearing up to run for a third Senate term, closed out March with $2.3 million in total cash on hand. Both the quarterly receipts and cash reserve totals were impressive, given that Lincoln spent a total of $5.8 million on her entire 2004 re-election campaign — which gave her a relatively easy win, with 56 percent of the vote, over Republican state Sen. Jim Holt.