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March 08, 2006
2006 GPTN Vote: Worse than South Florida 2000?
This past Sunday, the Green Party of Tennessee attempted to nominate candidates for office in Tennessee. I'm still waiting on the full list, but I use the word "attempted" because of an hilarious occurrence in the process. It has to do with our own 3rd Congressional district.
After the votes were counted, an announcement was made that Phil Penderton had received the highest count and would be the Greens' nominee in the race against incumbent Zach Wamp.
Fair enough -- except that there was no "Phil Penderton" actually trying for the nomination. There was, however, a Phil Pennington in the running, but he only received one vote.
Here comes the good part. When a GPTN committee member suggested that Phil Pennington actually received more than one vote, because the name was wrong, he received this as a reply:
On your correction, I recounted the ballots once again.The results remain the same. The Green Party of Tennessee has
nominated Phil Penderton for US House of Representatives 3rd
Congressional District. There was one vote for Phil Pennington, but
no others.Tomorrow, I will send the results to [...] the GP of TN
Coordinating Chair, for certification. She may accept or reject any of
the results that I have submitted. However, in my opinion, she has no
more power to change the names selected on the ballots by our
membership than I do.If Phil Pennington believes all the votes for Phil Penderton should
have been counted for him, then he may send a grievance to the Green
Party of Tennessee CC for redress. Unfortunately, our bylaws do not
give the GP of TN CC any power to correct the situation other than to
submit the issue to the membership for consideration at our next
annual meeting. It is lucky that we are having a State Membership
meeting in May, so that this matter, should it be contested, could be
resolved in a timely fashion.
The response: "Just saying[,] there is no Phil Penderton."
I remember the local GP chapter being unable to consistently distinguish between Bob Corker and Harold Coker in their discussions. I also remember trying to explain the boundaries between county commissions, city councils, and the state legislative districts. The ensuing swirl in just about every meeting was not-so-fondly recalled as I read about this latest bungle. I have deep love and respect for the Green values, even though I tend to differ on some specific positions; but the real problem with the party is that there seems to be an inordinate proportion of its membership that is hopelessly and permanently confused about the simplest of things, such as names and electoral geography.
And then, as evidenced by the above quote, they turn bureaucracy into an extreme sport. One of the last GPTN meetings I attended was fraught with argument over whether the word "The" should appear at the head of the party's official title.
I guess I'll wait to update my US House Ballot Preview page for the 3rd District until this Phil Pen***ton flap gets settled.
Political News | By joe lance | 02:42 PM