Okay, here is the official ballot for the Netroots Awards. Voting will be open from now until Friday at noon. Please e-mail me your votes at quinnelk@hotmail.com in order to keep ballots secret. I want to try to avoid hurt feelings and unnecessary conflict. Votes after 12 p.m. on Friday I won’t even see, since I’ll be on the road…
The competition was pretty strong, particularly considering the fact that the nomination period was necessarily brief. Next year, nominations will be open longer. Still, we had 46 people nominate 208 web sites, individuals and groups in the 13 categories. Please pick only one choice in each category and please vote in more than just one category. Don’t just vote for your friend or your group, take a look at the other categories and do your best to honestly vote for the best in each category. In each category, I took the top three nominees based on the individual number of nominations. With the state and local blogs, the votes were closer and there were more options so I extended it to five.
Very important: You can NOT choose one of the “other nominees” for these awards and you can’t vote for anyone other than the official nominees. Any other votes will be invalidated. If you nominated someone, you STILL NEED TO VOTE FOR THEM in order for them to win the award. As of the time of this post there are no votes for anyone in any category, the vote tally is reset at 0. Sites are listed in order of the number of votes they got. When a tie happened, they were listed in the order I received them. There may be a better way to do this, but this is what I came up with on short notice and lack of sleep.
Thanks for participating and thanks for nominating your favorites. This list should in no way be taken to mean that others that are left out are not as good as those nominated or that others didn’t also deserve nomination, just that no one did nominate them…this year.
1. Best National Blog
- Blast Off! (http://flprogressive.blogspot.com/)
- Bark Bark Woof Woof (http://barkbarkwoofwoof.blogspot.com/)
- Pushing Rope (http://pushingrope.blogspot.com/)
Other nominees: T. Rex’s Guide to Life, Florida Kossacks, Discourse.net, Pensito Review.
2. Best State Blog
- FLA Politics (http://www.flapolitics.com/)
- Smashed Frog (http://smashedfrog.blogspot.com/)
- Florida Progressive Coalition (http://flaprogressives.org)
- Florida Netroots (http://floridanetroots.blogspot.com/)
- Change in Tallahassee (http://changeintallahassee.blogspot.com/)
Other nominees: Build Florida’s DECs, flablog, Blast Off!, the 13th juror.
3. Best Local Blog
- Eye on Miami (http://www.eyeonmiami.blogspot.com/)
- Tampa Bay Blue (http://tbdem.blogspot.com/)
- GusWatch (http://www.guswatch.blogspot.com/)
- Stuck on the Palmetto (http://stuckonthepalmetto.blogspot.com/)
- Talk To Me (http://www.floridatoday.com/blogs/talktome/)
Other nominees: Broward’s Blog, Local Politics is All, Empirical Polk, Ricksblog.biz, Transit Miami, Interstate4Jamming, Sticks of Fire.
4. Best Media Blog
- Naked Politics (http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/)
- The Buzz (http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/)
- The Daily Pulp (http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/)
Other nominees: Central Florida Political Pulse, Reid Blog, Taking Names, Political Whore, Troxblog, Poho, The Feed.
5. Best Professional Blog
- Miami-Dade Dems (http://miami-dade-dems.blogspot.com/)
- Samm Simpson’s Blog (http://sammsimpsonforcongress.com/blog)
- Marion County Democratic Party Blog (http://www.mariondems.org/blog)
6. Best Party Website
- Draft Katherine Harris (http://www.draftkatherineharris.com)
- Florida Democratic Party (http://www.fladems.com)
- Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus (http://www.floridaglbtdemocrats.org/)
Other nominees: Make It count Florida.
7. Best Candidate Website
- Lee Nelson (http://www.electleenelson.com/)
- Chris Chiari (http://www.chiari08.com)
- Jack Killingsworth (http://www.jackkillingsworth.com)
Other nominees: Don Chinquina, Jonah Wolfson, Michael Calderin, Shawn Byrnes, Rick Kriseman, Kevin Beckner, Alex Sink, Carl Zimmermann.
8. Best Local Party Website
- Nassau Democratic Party (http://www.nassaudems.org)
- East Hillsborough Democratic Club (http://www.easthillsboroughdemocrats.org)
- Marion County (http://mariondems.org/)
Other nominees: Leon County, Seminole County, Miami-Dade, Democratic Power Club, Suncoast Stonewall Democrats, Pinellas, Orange, Duval, Hillsborough, Brevard, Pasco, Broward.
9. Best Interest Group Website
- Progressive Democrats of America (http://pdamerica.org/statecaucus.php?s=FL)
- St. Johns Riverkeeper (http://www.stjohnsriverkeeper.org/)
- Space Coast Progressive Alliance (http://www.spacecoastprogressivealliance.org/)
Other nominees: Grassroots Brevard, Miami for Peace, Florida PIRG, Grassroots Democrats, Civic Concern, Fla. AFL-CIO, Florida Workforce Housing, The Fort Report.
10. Best Writer
- Sunny (http://smashedfrog.blogspot.com/)
- Litbrit (http://litbrit.blogspot.com/)
- Kenneth Quinnell (http://flaprogressives.org and http://quinnell.us/)
Other nominees: Ray Seaman, Bob Norman, Sheree Shatsky, Vrej Esphanian, Progressive Florida/Progressive America, John Masters, Mariella Smith, Tommy Duncan.
11. Netroots Candidate of the Year
- Michael Calderin, Florida House 119
- Mary Mulhern, Hillsborough County Commission
- Lee Nelson, Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections
Other nominees: Christian Chiari, Liz Campbell.
12. Netroots Activist of the Year
- Jennifer Killingsworth, Florida Netroots and Florida Democratic Party Netroots Coalition
- Alison Berke Morano, Pasco DEC, Democratic County Chairs Association and Florida Progressive Coalition
- Susan Smith, Democracy for America, Florida Progressive Coalition
Other nominees: Ray Seaman, Eddie Schweiterman, Mitch Kates, Phil Perry, Kindra Muntz, Gene Smith, Mariella Smith, Kenneth Quinnell (sorry, I declined nomination in this category in order to open it up to others more deserving. Thanks for the nomination, but others work harder than I do and they deserve recognition).
13. Netroots Organization of the Year
- Florida Progressive Coalition (http://flaprogressives.org)
- Progressive Democrats of America (http://pdamerica.org/statecaucus.php?s=FL)
- Florida Netroots (http://floridanetroots.blogspot.com/)
Others receiving votes: DFA, Florida Democratic Party, Demslink, Florida Sunshine State TESOL Advocacy Mailing List
Hi Kenneth, I edited this post to make all the URLs into working links. Plus, I added some html code to format the post and improve readability.
The URL listed for Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus was incorrect… It’s fixed now.
Thanks, I’ve got too much on my plate at the moment so things like that slip my mind…
Nothing but Democrats. I thought you said these were *progressive* websites.
1. These aren’t all Democrats
2. Most Democrats are progressives, most progressives are Democrats
3. Nominations were strictly based on who got the most votes. If the web site you like didn’t make it, then not enough people agreed with you that those were the best web sites.
Not to mention that these awards aren’t put on by the Florida Progressive Coalition, they are put on by the Florida Democratic Party Netroots Coalition. I’m going to wager that most of the members of that organization (meaning ALL) are Democrats.
Can nominees be added? Write-ins?
No, there wouldn’t be a way to manage an excessive number of nominees and it would be difficult, if not impossible, to come to any consensus on winners. You can pick one of the listed nominees or abstain from a particular category and just vote for those you can.