Bring Matt Stoller to the FDP Convention

Once upon a time, not so long ago, a novice political blogger opened up her big fat, um, keyboard and suggested that there be a blogger panel at the Florida Democratic Party Convention.


There must have been some magic in that keyboard that day because all sorts of wonderful things started happening:

• Bloggers were invited to a special luncheon at the Jefferson-Jackson Weekend in June


• Bloggers adopted the Blog Florida Blue Initiative


• Florida Progressive Radio launched and its audience is growing bigger with each broadcast


• The Netroots Coalition, modeled after a constituency caucus, has been added to the Florida Democratic Party structure.


• We're putting pressure on Florida’s Republican Congressional Delegation with the new WatchBlog network.


• Many bloggers around the state are keeping Florida informed with daily postings

AND, not only did the Florida Democratic Party invite bloggers to their 2007 State Convention to be held October 26-28 at Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resort in Lake Buena Vista, FL, but the blogger panel expanded to become three panels: Netroots 101, Netroots Tools, and Working with the Netroots.

Plus, we're going to have really awesome opening and closing keynote speakers!

However, its going to take more than magic. We need your help!

Our goal is to raise $1500 to cover travel expenses for our keynote speakers. Please consider giving a small contribution to bring these speakers down. Their expertise will be invaluable in furthering the Florida Netroots.

Donate via ActBlue

Yesterday, the Florida Democratic Party announced that Matt Stoller from OpenLeft.com will be giving our closing keynote address.

Besides writing at OpenLeft.com, Matt is President of the political action committee BlogPAC and he also consults for the Sunlight Foundation on open government, for ActBlue, and for Working Assets, a progressive phone company. Other past projects of his include the web campaign thereisnocrisis.com to fight against the privatization of Social Security, a radio and blog project called 'The Blogging of the President', and the web campaign enjoythedraft.com. He is the co-author of a report titled 'The Emergence of the Progressive Blogosphere' from the New Politics Institute. In 2003, he worked on the Draft Wesley Clark movement. Stoller began blogging in 2002.

I agree with the FDP that:

Matt’s focus on progressive coalition building, the mechanics of the right-wing, and communications policy is exactly the expertise that will help us to grow the online progressive infrastructure in Florida.

Please help us bring Matt Stoller and another great keynote speaker who will be announced very soon to the Florida Netroots Conference at the state convention:

Donate via ActBlue

Special thanks to all the energetic and passionate people out there who worked so hard to make the magic happen. You turned an idea into a reality.