DENVER—Democratic Party officials said Tuesday at least 50 bloggers will be allowed onto the floor of the national convention in Denver this summer, a move one Internet writer called “fantastic.”
The bloggers will be part of the “DemConvention State Blogger Corps,” and one from each state will be seated with members of that state’s delegation, convention spokeswoman Natalie Wyeth said.
Party officials will choose which blogs get the floor credentials sometime after April 15, the deadline for applications.
“I think it is fantastic that the state bloggers are going to get seated with their delegations,” said Joan McCarter, a contributing editor for dailykos.com. “It is a much, much better situation than 2004.”
Internet-based reporters have complained they were stuck in bad seats and had poor access to major players at the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston.
McCarter, of Seattle, said she was not troubled that party officials would control which blogs get onto the floor and which do not.
“The criteria they’ve set up are very fair for having blogs that are well-established,” she said.
To be eligible for the State Blogger Corps, a blog must have been at least six months old before applying, have at least 120 politically related posts and provide examples that set them apart. They must also submit daily audience numbers from Technorati, a Web site tracking service.
The party plans to credential other bloggers as part of a general pool, but Wyeth said convention officials had not decided the total number of bloggers or what access they will have.
Wyeth said the number would be larger than the 30 who got credentials for the 2004 convention, but she said the total won’t be announced until party officials see how many apply by the deadline.
She refused to say how many had applied.
McCarter said she is somewhere between optimistic and pessimistic on the number of bloggers who will be allowed in the general pool and how much access they will have.
“It’s not looking good for us to have full floor access,” she said. “They appear to be working to accommodate us as much as they can.”
Bloggers will also be credentialed at the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn. No decision has been made on numbers or access, but “blogger presence at our convention will be significant,” spokesman Matt Burns said.
