The Rightroots Final Tally

16 Oct, 2006 by John Hawkins

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When Rightroots went live on August 1 of this year, no one had really done anything like this before on the right side of the blogosphere and the conventional wisdom was that conservative blogs simply couldn’t raise money. So, truth be told, I was thinking that if we were able to raise $100,000 to $125,000 or so, it would be a big success.

So, when we raised roughly $47,500 in our first month, I figured we were on track to pull in about that much. Then, in month two, we turned it up a notch and raised around $80k. Not too shabby. But then, in the first 15 days of October? We went from roughly $127,500 to $242,426. Wow, that was really something.

All in all, we ended up raising about $24k a week for the GOP that may not have otherwise been tapped. Moreover, we’ve managed to gin up some money and attention for ABC PAC. Republicans have been asking when we’re going to have a PAC that can raise money on the net like ActBlue has done. Well, next election cycle, in large part because of the Rightroots project, ABC PAC will be the right’s ActBlue. That’s a big deal.

Of course, it would have been nice if we’d hit our goal of raising more money than the netroots candidates over the same time period (from Aug 1 – Oct 15), but they’re bigger, more experienced, and outraised us about 3 to 1. On the upside, even in this lousy environment for Republicans, I think we still have an excellent shot of getting more of our candidates elected than they do, which was our other goal.

Still, long story short, this was a very successful project and I’m really proud that I was the one who got the ball rolling on it, even if I was just a cog in the wheel once it took off.

There are a lot of other people who deserve credit for making this project fly including:

— First and foremost, everyone who donated! Thank you very much! We would have been nothing without you.

— Everyone on the Rightroots Selection Committee: Mary Katherine Ham from Townhall, Robert Bluey from Human Events, Erick Erickson from Redstate, Ed Morrissey from Captain’s Quarters, Patrick Hynes from Ankle Biting Pundits, Lorie Byrd from Wizbang.

All these people selflessly contributed their time and effort to getting this program going — and every member played a key role in making it work. Thanks for making it happen!

— It would have been easy for ABC PAC to sit this election out while they waited for big donors to give them the money they need to get all the bells and whistles up on their website, but they decided that they wanted to make an impact this time around — and they did. Thanks, guys!

— To all the bloggers who linked Rightroots, ran Blogads, endorsed the project, and spread the word? Thank you very much! All the eyeballs you directed towards Rightroots turned into money in our coffers. We couldn’t have done it without you.

— To Bill Frist, Jack Kingston, John McCain, and in particular, the RNC: thanks! When you’re running a grassroots effort, getting a little support from the insiders in the Party helps legitimize the project. Moreover, the email the RNC sent out? That brought in a significant chunk of the dough we raised in October. The help was appreciated!

For this election cycle, Rightroots has done all it can do. Hopefully, it will pay off in a few close races.