Sharron Angle, the Tea Party-backed candidate hoping to take down Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, shocked many in the political world last week when she announced she had raised a remarkable $14 million during the third quarter.

Some took it as the latest sign of the Tea Party’s grass-roots strength and further proof of Republican momentum in this year’s midterm elections. But now that her full 9,112-page campaign finance report is available for review, it is also clear that her fund-raising haul came at a hefty price as she worked to transform what was once a bare-bones primary operation into a full-fledged campaign that is threatening to vanquish the Senate’s most powerful Democrat.

Ms. Angle actually raised a total of $14.4 million in the quarter, but burned through $12 million, spending about a third of the war chest she amassed from July 1 to Sept. 30 on expenses associated with an ambitious and expensive direct mail program, according to a review of her filing with the Federal Election Commission by The New York Times.

It is difficult to quickly tabulate exactly how she spent her money, because Senate candidates file their fund-raising reports on paper, instead of electronically, as House candidates do. But a page-by-page review of her expenses offered a glimpse of how she poured out so much money so quickly.