I am loathe to weigh in...but here it goes:
About five years ago, the BFW had no written policy on ballots for board
election. The board had their annual election and there was an empty seat and
they failed to run a candidate. As such...Eric Schramm was elected as a write
in candidate with 7 votes (a plurality). In that same year Tim Wong got 4
write in votes and two other people each got one write in vote.
Though Eric was welcomed to the board...there was a scramble to assure that
this kind of thing would never happen again. So the board began nominating
candidates.
Then...a few years later, John Rider expressed interest in being on the board.
He was convinced not to run...basically to stand down. This had been the case
with a handful of other candidates over that year and the few years after the
Schramm thing and up to present...people were talked out of running for the
board so that the board's preferred candidates would be elected unopposed. Bill
Hauda was nominated by the board and won election without opposition.
After that, it was clear that a policy needed to be put in place. The policy
was that anyone who wanted to be on the ballot would be included on the
ballot...with a bio. The board would have an endorsed slate...but others could
be on the ballot "unendorsed". There could also be write in candidates.
That was the written BFW policy until January 15, 2007.
In any regular year...candidates win the election with about 70-200 votes. So
only about 200 people vote in the election.
Anyone who does not live in Dane County has no idea what is going on inside
BFW...so I firmly believe that the election could be controlled by a Dane
County write in campaign. There are about 700-1000 BFW members in Dane
County...about 1/3 to 1/2 of the membership (don't know current numbers, this
was the case as of last year).
If people want Pam Barrett...or anyone else...elected as a write in
candidate...it is doable...but it won't be easy.
-Dar
---------------------------------
Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha!
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