A possible bid for the 2010 Republican Senate nomination in Kentucky certainly won't enable eye surgeon Rand Paul to rake in the mega-millions in campaign donations procured by his much better-known father -- Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul -- when he campaigned for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination on his strongly libertarian-tinged platform.

But the younger Paul, a first-time candidate for public office, has taken a page from his father's playbook by going online to build up the treasury for the "exploratory" Senate campaign committee he established in May. And he pronounces himself pleased with the fact that his receipts topped $100,000 in a little more than a month.

Paul's organization said it hasn't held any fundraising events, instead collecting mostly small contributions "from over 1,200 regular people who nickle and dimed their way to an impressive showing" in advance of the candidate's fundraising report for the year's second quarter, which is due to be filed by July 15.