Yesterday I announced the addition of three candidates to the Rightroots endorsed list, as well as the beginning of a challenge to collect 100 donations per candidate between now and September 20. Rightroots bloggers will be featuring various candidates over the next couple of weeks. John Hawkins begins with Mike Bouchard and David McSweeney.

We're looking to pull in 100 donations for each of our 21 candidates over at Rightroots. Towards that end I'm going to be doing profiles of our candidates each day in order to give you a better idea of whom you'd be chipping in money to. Today, the candidates profiled will be Mike Bouchard and David McSweeney.

Candidate #1: Mike Bouchard

State: Michigan
Seat Currently Held By: Debbie Stabenow (D)
Candidate + cash on hand: Mike Bouchard ($530,115)
Opponent + cash on hand: Debbie Stabenow ($4,369,090)
Kerry vs. Bush in 2004: 51% vs. 48%
Latest polling: Free Press-Local 4 Poll: Stabenow 50% VS. Bouchard 37% & GOP Internal Poll: Stabenow 49% Vs. Bouchard 42%
Webpage: here

Other: -- Bouchard has been endorsed by the Club for Growth.
-- Here's Bouchard's latest commercial.
-- A teleconference with Mike Bouchard.

Mike Bouchard is a Michigan Sheriff who started to become competitive with incumbent Democrat Debbie Stabenow after he completed a long, tough primary race. If Bouchard gets the money he needs to run ads, he can beat Debbie Stabenow and we can replace a liberal Democrat with a conservative Republican who is tough on crime, terrorism, illegal immigration, and pork.

Candidate #2: David McSweeney

District: (IL-08)
Seat Currently Held By: Melissa Bean (D)
Candidate + cash on hand: David McSweeney ($473,615)
Opponent + cash on hand: Melissa Bean ($2,175,474)
Kerry vs. Bush in 2004: 44% vs. 56%
Latest polling: Constituent Dynamics: Bean 48% vs. McSweeney 45%
Webpage: here

Other: -- A mini-interview with David McSweeney is here.
-- A third party candidate named Bill Scheurer may draw off significant support from Bean.

Melissa Bean occupies a seat that probably shouldn't be hers. There's a good chance to reclaim this one for the GOP. Bean took it away from Phil Crane two years ago and the Republicans in Illinois want it back. David McSweeney emerged as the GOP nominee, but spent nearly all of his $2 million to do it. He'll need to mobilize the Republican base to turn Bean out, and needs funds to do it. This is one you can put back in our column.