Right With the Roots

For those of you who, like me, want to see more Republicans (and particularly more new Republicans) elected in 2006, now have a convenient place to donate money to Republican House and Senate challengers – RightRoots, an effort to identify four Senate challengers and 14 House challengers, all in competitive races, endorsed by a group of conservative bloggers. The roster of candidates is here, John Hawkins’ longer introduction to RightRoots is here, and Congressman Jack Kingston’s challenge to raise $26,000 by Friday is here (we’re close). I’ve already kicked in money to a handful of the House candidates, and will be coming back later for the Senate candidates (hopefully, more will be added to the list after the late Senate primaries in Tennessee and Michigan). And if you want to make a difference, spread the love; Diana Irey is getting more than her share for her race against Jack Murtha, but there are other candidates in lower-profile races who need the money just as badly.
To give some perspective on the four Senate candidates endorsed by RightRoots, here are the latest figures from the National Journal’s roundup of FEC filings showing these candidates’ cash on hand (in millions) compared to their opponents as of June 30. As you can see, Kennedy faces a well-funded opponent, as will Steele if Cardin wins. And Kean and McGavick are both in danger of being hugely outspent, even when you account for the fact that McGavick can probably pump some more of his own money into the race (remember, Cantwell is a multimillionaire). And in Kean’s case, New Jersey races are prohibitively expensive because no TV stations reach the whole state – NJ candidates need to do ad buys in both the NY and Philly TV markets, each of which is very expensive. In short, all four need your help.

State Party Candidate Cash on Hand
MD R Steele $3.04
MD D Cardin $2.33
MD D Mfume $0.23
MN R Kennedy $4.06
MN D Klobuchar $3.51
NJ R Kean $2.28
NJ D Menendez $7.39
WA R McGavick $1.09
WA D Cantwell $6.43

Machiavel at Red State notes that Chris Wakim, one of the RightRoots-endorsed challengers, is running against the notoriously corrupt Allan Mollohan.

One thought on “Right With the Roots”

  1. Kean’s a pretty good candidate (at least in that he inherits the political goodwill of his father), but I did not realize he’s so underfunded against Menendez. I would think that with the Democrats enjoying their traditional home-field advantage in New Jersey, a Republican would have to have more money to have a chance.
    I also didn’t realize Cantwell had so much money. That tends to dampen what would otherwise be a pretty solid pickup opportunity for the GOP.
    Maryland really comes down to who the Democrats nominate – Steele would have an excellent chance against Mfume, but he’d face fairly long odds against Cardin.

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