Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) may be trailing in the polls against prospective Republican challengers, but he enjoys a major financial advantage as the 2010 campaign season gets under way.

For the fourth quarter of 2009, former state Republican Party Chairwoman Sue Lowden has emerged as the top fundraiser in the Nevada Senate GOP primary.

But her $800,000 haul is a pittance compared with the $7.5 million Reid raised through the first three quarters of the year and the $8.7 million his campaign had on hand at the end of September.

Reid has yet to release his year-end totals.

In announcing her totals, Lowden boasted that her team raised “significantly more— than GOP rival Danny Tarkanian, a Las Vegas real estate developer.

Tarkanian and Lowden are leading in early polling of the Republican primary.

A spokesman for Tarkanian confirmed that he raised $650,000 through the end of the year. The Tarkanian campaign will release its fourth-quarter totals when it files its year-end report on Jan. 31.

Lowden, however, chose to ignore another GOP contender, New York-based banker John Chachas, who is capable of marshaling significant financial resources.

Chachas raised just $252,000 in the fourth quarter, his campaign said, but he also loaned his campaign another $260,000, pushing the total personal funds he has put into his campaign to $1.3 million.

Other candidates in the Republican field, including former state Assemblywoman Sharron Angle and state Sen. Mark Amodei, have yet to release their year-end fundraising totals.

Still in the wings is Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, a one-time rising star in the party who was taken out of the running temporarily by an indictment on charges of misusing his office funding as state treasurer. The indictment was dismissed in the fall, and Krolicki, who had ruled out a run initially, is now seriously considering a bid, as the Las Vegas Sun reported last week.