SamTV reports from the Sammies
January 14, 2008
On December 20th, 2007 the Sam Adams Alliance & Foundation awarded our inaugural Sammie awards. Winners from Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Washington won $5,000 and $10,000 cash prizes for their work in advancing government accountability and transparency.
The winners of the 2007 Sammie awards were:
- Melyssa Donaghy of Indianapolis won the $5,000 "Tea Party" award for staging numerous creative protests around the state in response to Indiana's increasing property tax burden.
- Sal Costello of Austin, Texas won the $5,000 Best Short Satire Film award for his animation highlighting the "double taxation" associated with Austin's highway toll rates.
- Leon Drolet of Macomb, Mich. won the $5,000 Best Short Documentary award for his video footage of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance spreading the word about State Representative Marc Couriveau's 3,000 percent tax increase on local garbage disposal.
- Stefan Sharkansky of Seattle won the $5,000 Sunshine award for his work investigating the government with Washington's Public Records Act and exposing cases of government waste, incompetence, and malfeasance on his blog, Sound Politics.
- Ben Cunningham of Nashville won the $5,000 Local Blogger award for his blog, Taxing Tennessee, which gets on average over 2 million views weekly and covers topics on taxes, freedom, and individual rights.
- Finally, the "WeDemand" coalition from Hamilton County, Ohio won the $10,000 "Modern-Day Sam Adams" award for its work to defeat an $800 million sales tax increase through grassroots mobilization.
