LANCASTER, Pa. (CBS) - A Federal Election Commission analysis says that presidential campaign donations from Pennsylvania are nearly split between President Obama and his Republican challengers.

Pennsylvanians donated just over $3 million during the first three-quarters of this year.  President Obama collected $1.5 million of that; the rest was divided among 10 Republican challengers.

And the donation levels are critically important.

“The president is literally in a battle for his life in the state,” says Franklin and Marshall College political science professor Terry Madonna.  He says the split in donations mean that Obama has a lot of work to do in the Commonwealth.

“Down in the Philly suburbs, where he did very well [in the 2008 election], now we are finding that they [voters] have a more negative view than positive view, and the fundraising is just an illustration of that,” Madonna tells KYW Newsradio.

And Madonna says that despite Obama’s polling troubles, he could conceivably raise $1 billion nationwide.

As for Pennsylvanians, he says, the state can expect to see a lot of Obama, as well as the Republican candidates, in the upcoming year.

Reported by Cherri Gregg, KYW Newsradio 1060