My friend John Hawkins, along with a few of my favorite bloggers, has come up with an answer to left-wing blogosphere’s (Netroots) endorsement and campaign fundraising for several Democratic candidates in House and Senate races all over the country. The answer is Rightroots. Lorie Byrd, one of the bloggers who helped John select the group of candidates to support, explains:

John Hawkins enlisted Mary Katharine Ham, Erick Erickson, Patrick Hynes, Ed Morrissey, Robert Bluey and me (on behalf of Wizbang and Wizbang Politics) to help him compile a list of 18 candidates in competitive Congressional races across the country who could use the support of our readers to make the difference in holding the House and Senate for the GOP.

Incumbents, because they already have name recognition, a good amount of money and support, were not included. We also decided not to wade into any primary fights, so no primary candidates appear on the list. Gubernatorial candidates are subject to different campaign finance laws, so they were also excluded.

Great idea. On the primary front, maybe in 2008 they could get involved in some competitive Republican primaries where challengers to incumbent Republicans who haven’t been doing their jobs would receive some significant support? Just a thought …

We decided to keep the list somewhat short so that maximum attention could be directed to each of the 18 very competitive races, so please don’t be surprised or offended if your favorite candidate is not included. There are literally hundreds of deserving candidates across the country, but we tried to zero in on those congressional races in which we believed our readers could make the most difference.

To see a list of those candidates, click here. Next to their names is the amount that has been contributed so far by Rightroots supporters.

Here’s more about the candidates, and how you can help out.

Disclaimer: I am not being paid to say any of this.

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Unrelated to Rightroots, but following on the theme of supporting candidates in competitive races, I would once again like to encourage readers to help support Senator Joe Lieberman in his bid to be re-elected in Connecticut, who is facing an unexpected challenge from anti-war candidate Ned Lamont (whose supporters include prominent lefty anti-war/hate-Bush bloggers Daily Kos and Jane Hamsher) in the upcoming CT primary (the primary is August 8th).

Lieberman is being demonized by the cut and run crowd in Connecticut for refusing to budge from his position on the Iraq war. In my opinion, a Lamont win in the primary there would galvanize the anti-war crowd across the country as never before. Let’s not allow that to happen.