Rightroots Archives

August 2, 2006

Rightroots: Irey Needs Support

Diana Irey has her work cut out for her if she wants to unseat longtime incumbent John Murtha in PA-12. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that she trails far behind Murtha in fundraising, although she still qualifies as the best-financed challenger in the state: While Republican challenger Diana Irey accelerated her fund-raising pace in the second quarter of the year, she still trailed far behind U.S. Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Johnstown, the veteran incumbent in the 12th Congressional District. Entering the final four months of the campaign, Mr. Murtha's campaign committee had a cash advantage of more than 10-to-1 over the Washington County commissioner. The Democrat entered July with $1,804,695, while Ms. Irey had $159,138, according to a digest of Federal Election Commission filings compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Murtha funds include money leftover from his last campaign. Mr. Murtha had raised a total of $2,452,426 during that election...

August 3, 2006

Now Murtha Wants To Surrender For Other Nations

Rep. John Murtha has demanded an immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq for months. Now he's demanding another stand-down, but this time he's telling Israel to declare defeat and go home: Pennsylvania's Rep. John Murtha said yesterday that he favored an immediate cease-fire in the fighting in Lebanon. ... Mr. Murtha, speaking yesterday at a Post-Gazette editorial board meeting, was asked if he favored a cease-fire in the campaign north of Israel's border. "I think so," he said. "I think it would be very difficult to justify continuing on." Referring to the Bush administration's position, he said: "You know, they say, 'Well, we want a long-term cease-fire.' It seems to me you start with a cease-fire, and then you try to work out the details long term. If you don't, and you continue to have heavy-handed military action -- and I support heavy-handed military action because it saves your...

Rightroots: Glad To Know Jack

We just received a message from Jack Kingston regarding the challenge he issued on our Tueday launch. Rep. Kingston offered to donate $14,000 to the eighteen Rightroots candidates if we could raise $26,000 by midnight Friday. We've surpassed that with more than 36 hours to go! Rep. Kingston says: Way to go! I'm proud to be a member of this team. And I'll start cutting the checks! Now let's keep it going. George Soros hopes we'll stop. Let's be sure to disappoint him. -Jack Let's all keep cutting the checks -- and keep pushing hard for these critical races! UPDATE: I had the total wrong, as Jhn'1 in the comments notes -- Rep. Kingston donated a total of $14,000 to the candidates, not $100 each. Just when you think you know Jack ......

August 4, 2006

Rightroots: Michele Bachmann Interview Tomorrow

I just took a look at the Rightroots page, and we have had an excellent start to our effort! In just four days we have raised almost $35,000 for the eighteen candidates supported by the Rightroots initiative. The money has been spread around, too. Fourteen of the eighteen have received over $1,000 so far. Diana Irey has been the most popular candidate, pulling in more than $6,500 already. Considering that she had just $160K on hand at the end of June, the money will definitely come in handy. Her opponent, John Murtha, had $1.8 million in his campaign chest, although an amount almost equal to Irey's fund came with no disclosure. Does Murtha have contributors he wants to hide from his constituents? Another early Rightroots favorite is Michele Bachmann, running for Rep. Mark Kennedy's seat in MN-06 (Kennedy, another Rightroots candidate, is running for Minnesota's open Senate seat). We will...

August 5, 2006

Rightroots: Michele Bachmann Interview

After five full days of the Rightroots initiative, we have raised more money than we thought possible. We're up to $35K, and most of our candidates have over $1,000 in contributions already. Today we spoke with Michele Bachmann, one of the Rightroots candidates, along with Rep. Phil English from Pennsylvania, a key member of the Ways and Means Committee. The two are campaigning in Michele's district today and took a half-hour to talk with us about the election as well as key issues facing Congress now and in the next session. I have podcasted the interview in two segments: Segment 1 Segment 2 Be sure to listen to the whole interview, and hit the contribution page at Rightroots for Michele and the other fine candidates!...

August 24, 2006

Russell Simmons Brings Black Votes To Michael Steele

The endorsement of hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons appears to have opened the African-American voting bloc to Michael Steele, Maryland's Lt. Governor running for Paul Sarbanes' Senate seat. The Washington Times reports that appearances by Simmons on Steele's behalf has impressed some of the traditionally Democratic voters in Prince George County: The Maryland Democratic Party's traditional support among blacks appears to be slipping, now that hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons -- who has helped register thousands of Democratic voters -- has endorsed Republican Michael S. Steele for the U.S. Senate. Mr. Simmons is scheduled to hold a fundraiser tonight at Baltimore's Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park for Mr. Steele, the lieutenant governor and the first black to win a statewide office in Maryland. "Russell Simmons is one of the leading progressive voices in America," said Donna Brazile, who managed Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign. "This is a major endorsement for Lieutenant Governor...

September 14, 2006

McCain Supports Rightroots Campaign

The big push has continued this week for the Rightroots campaign, and it has added a rather significant name in support -- Senator John McCain. Patrick Hynes, who works for McCain as well as blogs at Ankle Biting Pundits, reports that the presidential contender wants to use Rightroots to help maintain Republican control of both chambers of Congress. He also includes an entertaining video clip in which McCain uses humor to separate rally attendees from the GOP money that still resides in their wallets. The Rightroots effort is in the middle of a push to get 100 new contributions per candidate between now and the 20th. Of course, every donation helps, but we really want to show that the conservative blogosphere can adopt a grassroots enthusiasm and support key candidates in the midterms. I can tell you that the endorsed slate include very winnable races for the GOP, and that...

September 15, 2006

Rightroots Push Continues

We're continuing our push for 100 contributions for each candidate in our Rightroots campaign, which has a slate of excellent candidates in competitive races for both the House and Senate in the upcoming midterm elections. As of this post, we have raised over $66,000 for the list, and we're just getting started. In order to make the stakes clear regarding the candidates, I'd like to highlight the two Minnesota races Rightroots supports. Mark Kennedy has served in Congress for three terms and now wants to win the seat from which Mark Dayton will retire. Kennedy has a solid conservative voting record and wants to pursue national security and open government issues when he moves to the Senate. His opponent, Amy Klobuchar, has a small but consistent lead on Kennedy in the polls. Klobuchar has served as the District Attorney for Minneapolis without getting her hands dirty by actually prosecuting cases,...

September 17, 2006

Rightroots: The John Hawkins Interview

Yesterday, Mitch Berg and I had the pleasure of interviewing John Hawkins regarding the Rightroots initiative on our Northern Alliance Radio Network show. John, the proprietor of Right Wing News, put together this effort on behalf of the conservative blogosphere to raise funds for key races that we feel are critical in holding onto Republican control of both chambers of Congress. This gives people living in districts that do not feature competitive races or states that have no Senate seat at risk to put their contributions where they will have the most impact. As of now, we have topped the 100-contribution mark in this 15-day spotlight effort days before the deadline. The rest of the candidates have more than half of their contribution goals, and we have raised over $38,000 in ten short days. That gives us a total of almost $90,000 for these fine candidates, none of whom have...

September 20, 2006

Rightroots Homestretch

We're coming into the home stretch for the Rightroots 15-day project to get 100 contributions for each of the candidates on our slate. We still have candidates who have a little way to go to meet the goal, but we have pushed five of them over the century mark. Diana Irey has received 146 contributions in the last two weeks for her contest against John Murtha, for instance, and all but one of our Senatorial candidates have met the goal. This morning we topped the $100,000 mark for Rightroots, a pretty astounding effort for a project only about six weeks old. With the midterms approaching, these Republican candidates can use all of the assistance you can provide. Help keep Congress in Republican hands by making your contributions to these campaigns. You can hear John Hawkins of Right Wing News explain the program to Mitch and me on our Northern Alliance...

September 21, 2006

Rightroots Hits The Mark While The GOP Ascends

The Rightroots campaign succeeded in its project to collect 100 contributions for each of its candidates. John Hawkins announced last night that we rode the momentum that had gathered over the weekend into a big burst at the finish line: Moreover, in the process we raised a nice chunk of change. The official count that ABC PAC gave us for the moment we started the challenged was $50,250.12. As of this moment, we have raised $112,618.46. So, we raised more than $62,000 during the challenge and, because of our success, the RNC has agreed to send out a promotional email on our behalf to their mailing list, which consists of millions of Republican voters. Furthermore, our totals don't include the $14,000 that Jack Kingston's PAC has given to our candidates for meeting a previous challenge. Consider that 10 weeks ago, Rightroots wasn't even an idea in my head yet. 9...

October 12, 2006

Final Push For The Rightroots Candidates

The Rightroots campaign started by a handful of conservative bloggers, including yours truly, has raised over $200,000 for the slate of candidates in competitive elections. The money will come in handy for these Republicans in their efforts to keep control of Congress with the GOP. However, time has almost run out for contributions to these campaigns, as fellow founder Wizbang! notes: You can still make a difference, but time is short. It takes time for ABC Pac and the campaigns to do the paperwork on the money that's received, so for contributions sent into Rightroots to have a chance to make an impact in this election cycle, they really should be received by October 15th. We have our deadline -- so be sure to make those final contributions before the clock runs out. Thank you for your continued support!...

October 27, 2006

Rightroots -- A Final Push

We have come down to the final ten days of the midterm campaign, and the fundraising for our Rightroots candidates has had amazing success. As of this morning, we have raised over a quarter-million dollars for the key races that could determine which party controls Congress. That money came in small to moderate donations from readers of CQ and other blogs, ordinary citizens like us who want to put their political contributions where they can have the most effect. For the final ten days, we want to focus on the ten candidates that we feel have the best opportunity to win their races. We are asking for one final round of contributions for these Republican challengers: Michele Bachmann (MN-06) Mike Bouchard (MI-Sen) Max Burns (GA-12) John Gard (WI-08) Thomas Kean (NJ-Sen) Mike McGavick (WA-Sen) David McSweeney (IL-08) Ray Meier (NY-24) Peter Roskam (IL-06) Michael Steele (MD-Sen) As some of the...