As Easy As...
They say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. In an effort to mimic ActBlue’s $7 million success, a handful of Washington-based Republicans have started ABC PAC as a counterpart to the lefty online clearinghouse for candidates. Today ABC PAC is taking their group a step further to launch “Right Roots” as their answer to the "NetRoots. "
Right Roots is a coalition of bloggers who have endorsed 15 Congressional candidates for November. According to coalition member John Hawkins of Rightwingnews.com, their group was looking for Republican challengers in uncontested primaries. So far out of the almost $6,000 they raised since this morning, Maryland Senate candidate Michael Steele and Dianne Irey (PA-12) are in the lead with a few hundred dollars each.
It’s going to be interesting to see how much conservative bloggers are willing to cough up to candidates now that they’re in the game. One of the more notable political outcomes of ActBlue was that you could see a clear dollar division between the NetRoots candidates (read: Lamont for Senate) and the established Democratic candidates who used the system as a free fundraising arm, such as Barbara Boxer’s PAC for Change. It was a quantifiable picture of who was getting the most online dollars and often more importantly, which bloggers were raising the most money.
Once ABC PAC completes its plans to let users develop their own profiles and candidate pages, perhaps online coalitions showing factions in the GOP might emerge as well. Regardless, now there’s a fairly accurate way on both the left and the right to view how the blogosphere is affecting a campaign -- both in dollar amounts and in the media buzz they will generate for the blogosphere's favorite candidate.
I am Michael Steele's opponent in the Maryland Republican Primary on September 12, 2006. Obviously, he is not "uncontested." Enjoy the website.