Florida Senator Dan Gelber Upgrades Political Use Of Twitter

Washington is all atwitter over a Politico story by Patrick Gavin this morning, The 10 Most Influential D.C. Twitterers. Sorry Republican imbeciles who have been using Twitter the way a 5 year old experiments with a fork and a toaster, namely Michigan Congressman Pete Hoekstra and Virginia GOP Chairman/state Senator Jeff Frederick were decidedly not included on the list. Why criminal justice avoiding former Bush political strategist Karl Rove is numero uno is beyond me. I wonder if he'll get to take a PDA to prison with him. Sixty members of Congress tweet but the only two who made the list are Senators Claire McCaskill (D-MO), at #2, and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), at #7. The Politico quotes Salon's Mike Madden's review of Grassley's tweets who says the senator "sounds just like the elderly pig farmer he is.” The rest of the list is a bunch of Inside the Beltway media types and ex-office holders, many of whom put the twit in twitter. Howie Kurtz, who didn't make the list, devoted a column in today's Post to it today. It's what you'd expect from Kurtz. Chris Cillizza is miffed he wasn't included and, in the same paper, has begun a campaign to catch up with... Ana Marie Cox.

Far from the Beltway's crooks and pig farmers, there is actually something interesting happening with Twitter. As the Florida legislative session gets down to business, state Senator Dan Gelber, the only progressive running for the U.S. Senate seat being abandoned by Republican obstructionist Mel Martinez, announced that he'll be "micro-blogging" the entire session via Twitter, giving Floridians unprecedented-- and long overdue-- access to the workings of their state's democracy. The fact that Dan is one of the most brilliant and articulate elected officials in the state should make this an extremely worthwhile endeavor.

"I believe in transparency and an open government process," said Sen. Gelber. "I am excited to use one of the newest tools in online communication because it will allow more Floridians to follow closely the major policy discussions in Tallahassee and offer their opinion on how their leaders should respond. Florida's facing great challenges right now, and the session will attempt to address them all in just 60 short days. We need the public participating in this conversation... I encourage my colleagues in the Florida Legislature to join with me in making this the most open legislative session in the states history by creating their own twitter accounts and using the #legfl hashtag. I want open debate, not just people who agree with me, and I am willing to help my colleagues on both sides of the aisle get set up."

 
You can follow Dan's tweets at www.twitter.com/DanGelber.

If you'd like to help Dan bring this kind of attitude-- plus a proven progressive record of accomplishment-- to Washington, please consider making a contribution to his campaign at our ActBlue page. If you'd like to get an idea of what to expect from Dan's tweets and what kind of a Senator he'll be if he wins in 2010, please watch Dan speak to the Board of Education about teaching faith in science class:



"I believe science class is a place for the teaching of science. And I believe faith and religion should be taught at home and in synagogues and churches and I believe you do a disservice to both when you mix them together." His website is excellent and filled with the kind of information voters need, but rarely get, when we're trying to make up our minds about how to vote. Today he explained what's he's trying to accomplish with his use of Twitter.