Ron Paul may not be leading the polls, but new data about his fundraising is a strong sign of his campaign's continued viability.

Smart Politics' Eric Ostermeier reports:

A Smart Politics review of Federal Election Commission fundraising totals through the end of 2011 finds that Ron Paul leads all Republicans in large donor itemized fundraising in nine states, representing regions across the country: Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, and North Dakota.

Paul also leads Mitt Romney in the upcoming caucus state of Minnesota - outraising the former Massachusetts governor by 27.1 percent among large donors in the Gopher State: $172,623 to $135,847.

Ostermermeier points out that this showing is particularly impressive if you consider that the majority of his campaign's contributions come from small donors, which are not represented in the FEC tally.

So the point here is that Ron Paul is basically a fundraising machine. But can he translate all that money into votes?

That's the plan. As Business Insider's own Grace Wyler reported last month, it has always been the Paul campaign's strategy to capture the nomination by numbers.

"We're a delegate-focused campaign," Paul's campaign chairman Jesse Benton said. "After South Carolina, we plan on focusing a lot on states with February caucuses — Nevada, Louisiana, Maine."

He's got the money, now it's time for Paul to collect.