2007 Florida Netroots Awards

Written by: quinnelk on Nov 2, 2007 1:11 PM EDT

(Thanks to Ybor City Stogie for the cool logo)

Below are the winners of the First Annual Netroots Awards, sponsored by the newly-chartered Florida Democratic Party Netroots Coalition. In this event there truly are no losers (except maybe Ray). All of the nominees were deserving and this is not simply a matter of there being only one good candidate in each category, but a matter of having to choose one candidate in each category. You really should be regularly reading (or working with) all the nominees.

Voting was incredibly tight in several categories, with more than 175 votes cast, some categories came down to only 1, 2 or three vote margins. Thats a sign of all the great work you people are doing out there -- it was often a difficult decision to determine who was "best" in a particular category.

For those who weren't at the Netroots Conference (more on that later), we do have beautiful hand-carved statue made out of the flesh of the great California Redwood trees for you... just kidding. We have a pretty certificate, suitable for framing. Without any further ado, the winners...
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1. Winner Best National Blog: A very tough category, but Sinfonian, the host of Blast Off! Radio and the Blast Off! Blog, was the winner. All three nominees are great reads that you should be checking out on a daily basis. Blast Off! (http://flprogressive.blogspot.com/). Sinfonian is a DFA member.

2. Winner Best State Blog: A tight race, but we lost out by a few votes to everyone's favorite place of their daily news fix, FLA Politics. FLA Politics really is kind of the blogfather of Florida political blogging and big supporter of Florida Progressive Coalition, so the award is very deserving. FLA Politics (http://www.flapolitics.com/)

3. Winner Best Local Blog: This one came down to exactly one vote, but the winner was the McCook wife-husband team at Tampa Bay Blue. (http://tbdem.blogspot.com/). Kathleen is a DFA member.

4. Winner Best Media Blog: Adam looked a bit embarrassed when he picked up his certificate, but there isn't any place more political junkies go to get the latest on Sunshine State politics than The Buzz. (http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/)

5. Winner Best Professional Blog: This was the category that received the second-most votes of all the awards and the deserving recipient of much of that love was Larry Thorson of Miami-Dade Dems. (http://miami-dade-dems.blogspot.com/). Larry is a DFA member.

6. Winner Best Party Website: Never underestimate the power of humor in getting people interested in something. The award-winner that got the biggest audience reaction was Draft Katherine Harris, created by some of the FDP staff also got the most votes (http://www.draftkatherineharris.com/)

7. Winner Best Candidate Website: Another very close race that came down to the last minute, Chris Chiari's website was judged the best by the most voters and Chris made sure to thank Brian Franklin for making the site such a good one. (http://www.chiari08.com/). Chris is a DFA member.

8. Winner Best Local Party Website: The tightest race from top to bottom, the Nassau Democratic Party website beat out the East Hillsborough Democratic Club by one vote and the Marion County site by only three votes. (http://www.nassaudems.org/)

9. Winner Best Interest Group Website: Cammie Donaldson and crew are one of the most active grassroots groups in the state and their website is very well-made and very useful. Space Coast Progressive Alliance (http://www.spacecoastprogressivealliance.org/). Cammie is a DFA member.

10. Winner Best Writer: While I'm a little sad I didn't win this category, I didn't deserve to, since Litbrit is without a doubt the best writer we have in the Florida blogosphere. I voted for her myself. Now you need to start reading her writing much more frequently. (http://litbrit.blogspot.com/)

11. Winner Netroots Candidate of the Year: The winner of this one is someone you can find pretty much everywhere the Netroots is, Michael Calderin, and hopefully he'll soon be joining me in Tallahassee. (http://www.michaelcalderin.com/). Michael is a DFA Member.

12. Winner Netroots Activist of the Year: Another tough category with multiple deserving people. In the end, Susan Smith got the most votes and she is a deserving winner. Whether it be her work with DFA or Florida Progressive Coalition or Florida Progressive Radio or helping out at the convention or Yearly Kos or her big financial support of Netroots activities, there really isn't anything we do that Susan hasn't helped out with. Susan is a DFA member.

13. Winner Netroots Organization of the Year: Florida Progressive Coalition took this category this time around. Not surprising since, like the AARP, potentially every voter is a member of this organization. If you'd like to join the Coalition and post to the blog, e-mail us at quinnelk@hotmail.com. At least a third of the members of FPC are also members of DFA.

We will also have a button for you to put on your website, it just hasn't been created yet. I'll take a stab at it later today. If someone more artistic that myself would like to create the buttons, that would be great. Make one for each category and we'll e-mail the crappy ones I come up with or the cool ones someone else comes up with today or tomorrow

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