Blog Florida Blue

Last week, representatives from the Florida Progessive Coalition, Florida Net Roots and Florida Kossacks held a conference call with staff from the Florida Democratic Party. The topic of the call was upcoming opportunities for bloggers to interact with the FDP, particularly at the Jefferson Jackson dinner in June and at the FDP Convention in October.

What came out of the call, which went very well by the way, was something that could be far more powerful. It was a brand name for the online effort to bring Democrats back into control in Florida. That brand name is Blog Florida Blue.

I'd like to invite all Florida bloggers to adopt this brand name whenever they are blogging on the effort to elect Democrats and build the Democratic Party in Florida. Blog Florida Blue can be a powerful branding device linking otherwise disparate efforts from Key West to Pensacola.

These are exciting and hopeful times for Democrats in Florida. While we did not win the Governorship in 2006, we did elect Alex Sink as Florida's Chief Financial Officer. Bill Nelson was easily re-elected to the US Senate and the political career of Katherine Harris crashed and burned. Democrats also seated two new Members of Congress from districts previously held by the Gopers. I am betting that we will actually make that three before the investigations into the under vote fiasco in FL-13 are over.

In the Florida Legislature, we stayed even in the Florida Senate. Charlie Justice was elected to an open seat in the Tampa Bay area that was previously held by a Republican. We almost picked up another seat in the Tampa Bay area when exciting new candidate Stephen Gorham came oh so close against Rhonda Storms for the seat held by term limited Tom Lee. Unfortunately, we were not able to retain the seat given up by Rod Smith when he ran for Governor.

The Florida House was an entirely different story. Democrats picked up seven seats previously held by Republicans. We were also tantalizingly close in two more seats in the greater Tampa Bay area. So far this year we are one and one in Florida House special elections. However, we did pick up our eighth seat in the House when Daren Soto won in Orange and Osceola Counties for HD-49. Congratulations to Representative Soto, FDP Chair karen Thurman and all those who worked so hard to make that victory possible. We are going to have one more special election for the Florida Senate and a couple more for the Florida House as a result of Senator Nancy Argenzano being appointed to the PSC. So our friends at the FDP are going to have some more opportunities to apply the lessons learned from the HD-49 victory.

Stay tuned for more details about the exciting opportunities for bloggers to interact with the FDP. But start thinking seriously about attending the Jefferson Jackson gala in Hollywood on June 8th and 9th. Nancy Pelosi is the keynote speaker, and you may be able to inteview her if you apply for blogger media credentials. More details on that to come later.

And take every opportunity to use the power of the blogosphere to Blog Florida Blue.