DENVER—Some bloggers who received credentials for the Democratic National Convention are asking whether several prominent Web sites weren’t selected because they criticized state party leaders.
The Democratic Party last week chose 55 bloggers who will have access to the floor of the Denver convention. They represent 54 states and territories and U.S. citizens abroad.
Picked from a field of 400 applicants, members of the State Blogger Corps will blog for their state and be seated with their state delegations during the August convention.
At least 28 of those selected have signed a letter to Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean stating, in part, that “In many states, it appears that parochial politics and hurt egos played a role in these decisions.”
The bloggers cited the exclusion of bluejersey.com, a site “passed over” in favor of PolitickerNJ.com.
“If you were going to make a top five list of progressive blogs that have had an impact in this country, bluejersey would be near the top,” said Matt Singer of leftinthewest.com, a Montana blog site granted credentials.
Singer said that bluejersey.com had questioned whether New Jersey state party officials had worked to boost Sen. Hillary Clinton’s chances of beating Sen. Barack Obama.
Aaron Myers, convention online communications director, insisted the DNCC, and not state officials, reviewed the applications—and noted that more credentials are coming.
“No one type of blog trumped any other in the credentialing process. We weren’t rewarding friends or favorites,” Myers said. “We didn’t hand off this project to state party officials, as was rumored.”
“Many more blogs will be credentialed in the coming weeks,” Myers said.
Democrats plan to credential more bloggers as part of the general press pool.
Convention officials have said they don’t know how many bloggers will be selected but that the number will be larger than the 30 who were allowed in the 2004 Boston convention.
