24 Days Until the New Election: The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend?

From reading our comments, as well as other online sources, it seems clear that Baker supporters take the exclusion of Freedmen voters as a bad sign and a blow to Baker’s campaign.  We can only speculate that a) Baker people know who their buddies are and b) that Freedmen must be supporting Baker.  However, we’ve never seen any indication that Baker particularly favors the Freedmen, but it's apparent many Freedmen seem to place the blame for their former (and current) lack of citizenship on Chad Smith personally.

Now, we all know Smith didn’t amend the constitution by himself, and that the Cherokee people voted overwhelmingly in 2007 that you have to be Indian (Cherokee, Shawnee or Delaware) to be part of the Cherokee Nation.  

We’re not here to focus on how this all happened, though.  We’re more interested in the perception that Baker is supported by the Freedmen.   To our knowledge, Baker has never spoken out publicly in their defense, so what gives?  And how does his support from Freedmen impact his other support?  After all, four years ago, the Cherokee people voted to kick folks out of the tribe who don't have Indian-blood by an almost 80% margin. 

So, it looks like Bill John Baker carries the endorsement of a group of people who have actively tried to terminate the Cherokee Nation both in court and in Congress (and might still try again). And that's kinda like getting Nancy Pelosi or President Obama's endorsement in the race for say, Oklahoma Governor-- an endorsement that might hurt more than it helps. 

32 Days Before the New Election: Better Late Than Never

This is the blog we thought we were going to have yesterday, before we found out that the Supreme Court has been busy on the Freedmen case.

As one of our readers posted, the Acting Principal Chief S. Joe Crittenden (APCSJC for short), withdrew the names of Hammons and Wright as Attorney General and Marshal, respectively.

Both had passed committee, with Crittenden voting in favor of Hammons and against Wright. 

It raises some questions, some of which have been asked recently but deserve answers.  Can the Chief withdraw something after is passes committee?  Or is it the council’s to do with as they see fit?  Who is in control of a council agenda?  In this case, the council deferred to the wishes of APCSJC and didn’t vote on Hammons or Wright, so we missed out on some interesting hypotheticals.  Like, what if the council passed a nomination that the Acting Principal Chief didn’t agree with after all?

What if they refused to take something off the agenda, because, what the heck, it’s their agenda? 

Considering it wasn’t that long ago that several of the same council members deliberately skipped work

because these exact nominations DIDN’T go through committee, it did seem kind of funny that council members were so willing to ditch the SAME NOMINATIONS after they DID go through committee.

After all the controversy we’ve had at the Cherokee Nation lately, it was actually refreshing to see the council and APCSJC treating each other with respect, so there’s that at least.  Let’s hope it lasts through September 24.    

33 Days Until the New Election: Court Rules On Citizenship Issue

Cherokee Nation lost 1% of its citizens today with four strokes of a pen.

Four Supreme Court justices voted to uphold the vote in 2007 that made everyone have to be Indian to be a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.  

Which seems pretty straightforward, but it was controversial because a year earlier, in 2006, the CN Supreme Court allowed freedmen descendants who don’t have an Indian ancestor to enroll as citizens, which they hadn’t been able to do before.

We’re not lawyers, and we’re not 100% sure what today’s ruling means, but it surely seems to say that if you are not Indian you are a not a Cherokee citizen.  If you are not Cherokee, it stands to reason you can’t vote here in a month or so.  We have no idea who freedmen voters would support, so it may not make a difference, but since we just had a controversy about whether people voted who aren’t Cherokee citizens, having 2800 people suddenly declared not citizens right before the election is probably going to mean more controversy again this time around.

And since some freedmen folks are already suing the Cherokee Nation in federal court over the results of the 2003 election (really!), then we may not have heard the last of today’s ruling either.

34 Days until the New Election: It’s An Honor Just to Be Nominated

Tomorrow night, the tribal council is considering some nominations. (look for agenda link to pull it up)

The interesting items are the ones that were on a special council meeting which Baker and his friends skipped on purpose.

Sharon Wright is nominated as Marshal, Diane Hammons is nominated as Attorney General, and Susan Plumb is nominated as election commissioner.

Wright and Hammons were nominated by Smith, before his term expired and passed committee.  Acting Chief Joe Crittenden is in charge now, and voted against Wright in committee, but in favor of Hammons.  He won’t get a chance to vote on them in full council, but he’s said he thinks that the nominations should wait until the permanent chief is in office (either Smith or Baker).  The terms of these appointees are for five years, and are meant to overlap the terms of the chief.  The terms expired during the Smith administration, so he thinks he’s supposed to nominate them.  Crittenden thinks the new chief should nominate them. 

The council really are the ones who get to decide, and it’s hard to say how the votes will go.  Hammons passed unanimously in committee, so her nomination might go through, but Wright’s was tougher, and Baker voted against it.  Crittenden and Frailey are off the council and there are new folks on who didn’t vote in committee, so who knows how it will go.

Plumb passed unanimously, and is a council appointee, but we wonder if it will matter that the current council didn’t vote on her in committee.  Either way, she could have been on the commission the past three weeks, but hasn’t been because of the council members who skipped the meeting, including Baker.

Also, tomorrow night will be Joe Crittenden’s first shot at a state of the nation address to the council.  We’ll try to watch the live stream and see what happens.

38 & 37 Days Until the New Election-Baker Spending

Baker spent $46,273.26  during the reporting period ending July 15.  Almost exactly half of that, $23,083.10, went to a company called Winning Connections in Washington DC for phone calls.  That’s a lot of money.  On their web site, they don’t give prices, so we can only guesstimate.  Our research showed a range of costs, with $.12 per robocall seeming to be fairly representative, though there were plenty of services that were cheaper.

Assuming those were all robocalls at $.12 each, that would work out to 192,359 phone calls from Baker.  While it seems like we got about 100,000 between just us here at Cherokee Truth, that may be right.   Of course, some of those may have been live calls from actual people.  According to a Cherokee Phoenix report, those may cost less than a buck each.   

Even so, that’s at least 23,000 phone calls.  So somewhere between 23,000 and 192,359 phone calls paid for by Baker, on top of however many phone calls his campaign volunteers made.

Speaking of which, just like every other report, Baker doesn’t have a phone bill charged to his campaign.  He does have a campaign phone number, but apparently he doesn’t have to pay for it.  Again no reported costs for office supplies, office expenses, campaign office rent, utilities or travel.

He did spend more than three grand at Reasors for a Hog Fry and $4500 to the election commission for a recount.  Which, considering how badly they butchered it (losing a few hundred votes and costing both candidates a ton of legal fees trying to figure out their mistake), might be the biggest rip off of the campaign so far. 

The usual suspects showed up as labor costs--- roommates Johnathan Levy and Sean Nordwall (1200 N. Cedar) and furniture store dweller Lindi Conover, for a total of $8280.

Baker’s total expenditures for the July reporting period were $46,273.26.  He ended with a balance of $24,787.54.  He’s spent a total of $321,859.42 so far.

39 Days Until the New Election: Smith Spending

Last week we went back to campaign finances, talking about the July finance reports for contributions for both Baker and Smith.

Things got busy this weekend, but since the August reports are coming out soon, we’ll dig into the numbers on HOW they candidates spent their money in the last days of the general election.  This time, we’ll start with Smith and move to Baker tomorrow.

Smith’s expenses, like his fundraising, were pretty eye-popping for the July reporting period.  For instance, he spent $103,872.54 on printing.  That buys a lot of ink and paper, we reckon.  It looks like most of that went to a company called Majority Designs in Oklahoma City.  The next biggest expenditure was $44,342.23 for compensation to individuals.  The biggest chunk of that seems to be more than $22,000 to a company called Cole Hargrave Snodgrass in Oklahoma City, which, surprisingly, doesn’t seem to have a web page, but does appear to have been founded at one point by current U.S. representative Tom Cole.  The other big line item was $11,276.65 for advertisements.

In all, Smith spent $174,018.25 between June 1 and June 29.  That brings his total expenditures to $364,714.44 and his campaign balance is $28,060.50.

But don't just take our word for it.  Check the links and see for yourself.

Tomorrow:  Baker's expenditures.

40 Days Until the New Election: Crittenden vs. the Clock

S. Joe Crittenden took his oath(s) of office(s) yesterday.  As we mentioned in yesterday’s blog, Crittenden laid out some pretty big plans for his short term.

He also told the Cherokee Phoenix about what his plans are, and his budget priorities.  The budget is supposed to be passed by the Tribal Council by October 1, and the budget has already been sent over. 

  

Of course, the council gets a proposed budget from administration but they are the ones with the final responsibility to actually pass it as a law and allocate money.  The interesting thing is that the guy who sent the budget over (Smith) is not the guy who will be sitting in the Chief’s chair when the council passes the budget and the Chief has to sign it into law. 

Time is short for Crittenden as he tries
to push his priorities through.

That gives Crittenden some leverage with the council (which includes Baker, of course, at least until after September 24) to make changes that he wants.  Theoretically, he can threaten to veto any budget he doesn’t like.   So he can advocate for all kinds of new things in the budget. 

The problem might be where to find the money.  Assuming that Smith budgeted most (if not all) of the available money, Crittenden or the council will have to propose cutting some services to add money to his pet projects.

The other alternative that has been kicked around has been to raise the dividend and get more money out of the businesses.  It’s been tried before, and failed, but we were told that Crittenden said yesterday at the inauguration he’d like to try it again.   Either way, we’ve got just a few short weeks to pass the budget and for Crittenden to be Chief, and it’s impossible for him to do what he wants without either making drastic cuts to some budgets to accomplish his goals, or a change to the dividend law, but who knows how long that might take, if it happens at all.

Stay tuned to see what happens, because it is starting to look like Crittenden’s going to try to pack a lot into his 6 weeks or so in charge.  It should be interesting.

41 Days Until the New Election: Double Cup of Joe Edition

A Double Dose of Joe

Joe Crittenden was sworn in this afternoon as Deputy Chief, and then later Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. 

According to the Tulsa World, Crittenden laid out a very ambitious agenda for his few weeks as head man, including starting new housing programs, increasing scholarship funding and more funding for elder care.

The Cherokee Nation’s web site had a news release, which quoted Crittenden as saying: 

“Although my tenure as Principal Chief may be brief, I have been entrusted with the momentous responsibilities of this office,” said Crittenden. “I vow to always do the right thing for the right reason.”

  

Joe Crittenden, who was sworn in as Deputy Chief,
and then acting Principal Chief earlier today.

Of course, Crittenden, who was Deputy Chief for about 15 minutes today, will go back to being Deputy Chief sometime after September 24.  The duties of Principal Chief will either revert back to Chad Smith or Bill John Baker will take over.  And, not surprisingly, both candidates had something to say about today’s festivities. 

  

On Smith’s facebook page, he had a statement that read in part: “Today is another example of the strength of the Cherokee Nation.  We have an orderly transition of power, despite a contentious and unresolved election.  Joe Crittenden takes up the serious job of leading our Nation, and I stand ready to help him.  Serving the Cherokee people has been my life’s work, and I won’t stop just because my term has ended.”

Baker, for his part, said: "Today is a great day for the Cherokee people. With Joe Crittenden sworn in as acting Chief we are taking the first step in moving our Nation from good to great. Chief Crittenden is one of the most honorable and kind men I have ever had the pleasure of calling my friend, and I cannot think of a better steward for the Cherokee Nation while we wait for the next election."

So the Cherokee Nation finally has a new Chief, at least for a few weeks, and our tribal council is two members short, with Crittenden off the council for the next four years, and Meredith Frailey taking the oath of office to temporarily fill the Deputy Chief’s position.  That ought to make any radical changes of course difficult, but not impossible, and Crittenden does seem to be ready to try to make his mark in these few weeks that he’s the Chief.  Let’s all hope for the best for Mr. Crittenden and the Cherokee Nation during this time.

Election Limbo Day 48-49: The End?

Today is August 13, 2011.  The last day of the terms of office for Cherokees who were elected in 2007 but did not get re-elected this year.

That includes Chad Smith, who’s last day in office also coincides with the sad occasion of his mother’s funeral.  He sent a message to employees as he left office, at least for a few weeks.

“On Saturday my family and I will lay to rest our beloved Mother and Grandmother until we can meet together with her again. Your thoughts, prayers of support and most of all your kindness will always be a treasured memory for us, we will never forget.  I offer our sincerest thanks and immeasurable gratitude.

Finally, we have much left to do. Please be assured, when I return in the near future we will be stronger than ever with your help and dedication to make the Cherokee Nation better and continue addressing the needs of our people for the future of our children.    We as a people, a family and a government have endured, survived, prospered and excelled since time immemorial and with your help, we will continue this legacy.”

The Cherokee Nation honored its other outgoing public servants with receptions.  One for Joe Grayson, outgoing Deputy Chief who lost a race for Tribal Council and a separate one for four outgoing council members: Brad Cobb, Chris Soap, Harley Buzzard and Joe Crittenden who is moving to the executive branch as temporary Principal Chief and long-term Deputy Chief.

The Cherokee Phoenix did some good stories on these guys, and we’re borrowing some quotes from them.

Grayson, on his way out after eight years, said ““I thank all of you very much, and I want to thank every one of you for keeping the Cherokee Nation strong, for keeping our Cherokee culture alive and language alive. The Cherokee Nation is more powerful today than it ever has been, and the reason is because all of your work. You’re not doing a job; you’re building a nation and we need to keep that going.”

Cobb, leaving the council after a narrow defeat in a newly redrawn district, said

“I think it’s important to be involved. I think there are too many people that have their car tag, and that’s about it, and I think that’s sad because there’s a lot going on and things we should be proud of.”

And Crittenden, facing his last day as a council member and his first day in the executive branch, said: “I felt like sometimes you may have more effectiveness in ways at the Council House than you would in the executive office as far as dealing with people and the people’s needs to some degree. But the same time I felt like I might be able to change seemingly, the way we had been headed.  And maybe I would have the ear, if you will, or at least be able to be heard maybe more at the executive level if I was a part of that team sitting in the deputy seat.”

  

Tomorrow,  Crittenden will take the ‘deputy seat,’ at least for a few minutes.  Later, he’ll take the Chief’s seat, at least temporarily.  Anyone who is going to the inauguration, we’d appreciate information on what kind of speech or priority list Crittenden says he’ll implement while we continue election limbo for a while.  The more information you can give us, the better,  as we’ll analyze this topic as well as we can with tomorrow’s blog.

Election Limbo Day 47- Smith Contributions

Yesterday, we talked about Baker’s contributors for the July reporting period, so now let’s check out Smith's.

First off, he started with a balance of $54,348 in the bank, and reported $133,730 in total funds raised.  He also made his second loan to the campaign… his first was $100, back in April, but this one was more substantial: $14,000.

Smith’s contributors include $727.95 from Susan Chapman Plumb, the nominee for the election commission, who, as we reported yesterday, also gave to Baker.

Smith raised money from people in the political arena: Tulsa County Commissioner John Smaligo gave Smith $200, former state insurance commissioner Kim Holland gave $500, former Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor gave $1000, former congressman Brad Carson pitched in for $2500 and former Chief Ross Swimmer gave $2000.

He also snagged $5000 donation from Jim Carson of Stilwell, who has served on different boards at Cherokee Nation for a long time, and Howard Barnett, who is in charge of OSU-Tulsa.  The list is long, as it would have to be, to cover the $133,730 raised.  That may be the single largest fundraising month for either candidate for the entire campaign.

Smith’s fundraising total through the whole campaign $378,674.96. On top of his $14,100 loans, Smith has had a total of $392,774.94 to spend on his campaign thus far. 

Election Limbo Day 46- Campaign Finance & Baker

With all the recounts, threecounts, court decisions and runoffs, we never got around to the campaign finance reports for July for Smith and Baker.  Since the August reports are due already, we thought we’d play catch up.  For those of you who are new, we’ve analyzed their campaign finance reports since they first started coming out in April.  You can see them in our archives.

April

May

June

Over the next four days, we’ll go through the July reports and see where the candidates got their money and what they spent it on.  We’ll post the reports for you to see, since the July ones never popped up on the Cherokee Phoenix like the other ones did.

And just so you know where we’re going, we’re going to do Baker contributions first, then Smith’s, then Smith’s expenditures and then Bakers.  That’ll be four days worth.  Depending on what ever else happens, we may post these over the next four days or spread them out a little, but don’t worry, they are coming soon.

So, let's start with Baker’s contributions.   He started the reporting period with $13,507.08 in the bank.  He raised $17,553.72 from others and loaned his campaign $40,000.  That brings his total loans so far to $155,000… as we’ve said before, that’s a huge commitment from the Mr. and Mrs. Baker, who report a combined income of $41,000 to the IRS.

Notable contributions include $500 from Susan Chapman Plumb (nominated by the council for the election commission) and her husband.  Susan’s dad, Gary Chapman, gave Baker $1,000.  UKB lawyer Dianne Barker Harrold coughed up $150.  One of our readers and occasional commenters chipped in $2,427 (we won’t name names, but claim it if you want).  Chuck Hoskin gave $97.  We’re pretty sure that’s Chuck H. Jr., because he’s listed as a lawyer and Chuck H. Sr. was an educator and is now a state rep, but that’s just our speculation.  It’s clear that both Sr. and Jr.  support Baker, so it probably doesn’t matter which one handed over the $97.

Baker’s total contributions from others so far, $191,628.17 (including $20,000 from his family).

That’s on top of the $155,000 loan, which puts the total money in his campaign so far at $346,646.96.

Coming soon… Who’s giving to Smith?

Election Limbo Day 44 and 45: A Sad Day

Flags are flying at half-staff at Cherokee Nation.  Chief Smith’s mother passed away unexpectedly at the age of 87. Smith took time to put a couple of statements on his Facebook page.

In one, straight from the heart soon after her passing, he wrote: “She struck her head when she fell backward helping another elderly lady. She passed at 3:45 today from the injury. Her life was helping others so it was fitting at the age of 87 to die trying to save someone else. I adored her.”

Later, he added a message from his family:

“My brothers and I, along with our family, are privately mourning the loss of my mother, who passed away earlier today. We’re reflecting on the love she gave us, the lessons she taught us, and how she always treated others kindly and with respect. We ask for your thoughts and prayers as I leave political posturing to others and take a time out from being Chief and candidate to instead be a grieving son. Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers during this very private, family time.”

It might be a while before we see or here from Smith on the campaign trail, and that makes sense.  There are some experiences that are both unpleasant and universal, and Smith is having one of those right now.  This is an opportunity for Cherokees to show respect for their current Chief, even as they may disagree about who the next chief should be.

Election Limbo Day 43: Let’s Hear From You

 Many of you have noticed, and commented on, the fact that we’ve turned off the ability for you all to post your own threads and conversations.  The main reason for that is for us to stay focused on the reason this page exists:  to talk about issues in a calm and rational way, and to use facts to back up what we say.  So if someone says that there is ‘obviously corruption’ or that a candidate is a crook, we need to see some proof.  If corruption is obvious, let’s put it out there as proof.  Let’s get someone to prosecute it and put people behind bars.  If we can’t do that, then maybe it’s not obvious.

There is a lot of public information about the Cherokee Nation, more now than there ever has been.  We still want to hear from you, and we’ll probably allow other posts in the future, as well as guest blogs from people who have well-reasoned, fact based ideas about important issues.  For now, if there is a topic that needs the clear light of day shined upon it, then tell us here in the comment section, or send us an email at cherokeetruth@gmail.com. 

Keep in mind we’re just Cherokee citizens like you, not professional researchers or journalists, so we’ll investigate as much as we can and try to find the truth and let you know what it is.  If you have truth, and can back it up with facts and evidence, that is exactly what we’re here for and we’d love to help get the word out.  Let’s work together on this, huh?

Election Limbo Day 42: The Mrs. Justin Timberlake Edition

This hot man is also not
Principal Chief of CN

As we discussed yesterday, Bill John Baker sent out a news release yesterday with some very interesting information.  First, he accused the council of holding an illegal meeting, and said the council’s attorney Todd Hembree said it was illegal.  Hembree was at the meeting, though, and according to our sources, never said a word about it being illegal.  Also, the meeting was cancelled for lack of a quorum, though that’s never stopped Baker: in the 90s he voted to impeach the whole Supreme Court in an illegal meeting without a quorum.

But to us, it’s not even the most interesting thing about his news release from yesterday.

To us, the most interesting thing is right there at the top.  Some of our eagle-eyed readers already spotted it.  Baker’s letterhead says “Bill John Baker Cherokee Nation Principal Chief.” 

It’s hard to keep track of how many levels that this is NOT the Cherokee Truth.  First and foremost, no one has been elected chief in 2011.  Smith was certified a winner once, Baker was certified a winner based on an unreliable recount that the court threw out, Smith won an excrutiatingly long hand recount in which the court and both candidates participated and saw every ballot be counted.  But Baker didn’t win.  Neither did Smith, according to the Supreme Court. Even though Smith had the most votes, the court gave Baker a do-over, which will happen on September 24, 2011-- just seven weeks from today.

The truth is, there are absolutely no factual circumstances under which Bill John Baker is Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation right now. Chief Smith’s term to which he was elected hasn't even expired yet.  But, Baker sent out a news release proclaiming the title of Principal Chief anyway. 

Maybe he likes the way it looks when he sees it in writing, like those middle school girls who write Mrs. Justin Timberlake in their notebooks or whatever.  Or maybe he is trying a Jedi mind trick, though he should know that only works on the feeble-minded, and it’s apparent that he has not completed his training.   Or maybe he’s just got a whole bunch of business cards burning a hole in his pocket that he can’t wait to use.

"This not the Chief you're looking for..."

Regardless, we just want to clarify for everyone that no matter what Bill John Baker might send you via email, he is NOT principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.  Maybe he will be someday, but until then, he should probably sign all his correspondence as District 1 Tribal Councilor, since that is a post to which he has actually been elected.

Election Day 41: Playing Hookey

Ferris Bueller's  Bill John Baker's Day Off

The rumblings about Bill John Baker skipping out on today's council meeting were true. Today, Baker, S. Joe Crittenden and 4 other council members refused to show up to a meeting that would have addressed election law tweaks Baker himself actually demanded in court just a few short weeks ago. Not only that, but now the Election Commission has to work short-staffed for another 17 days because they weren't able to approve Susan Plumb, the woman unanimously appointed by the council, to be the 5th Election Commissioner. 

Chief Smith called Baker on the carpet saying, "Most Cherokees, if they flat out refuse to show up for work, they get fired. How does he expect anyone to believe he’ll do the work of a chief when he won’t do the work of a councilman?”

Speaker Meredith Frailey and the council members who showed up were dismayed that their colleagues would refuse to do the job with which they were entrusted by the Cherokee people, saying, "I’m very disappointed that we don’t have a quorum to do the work and be the voice of the Cherokee people."

Meanwhile, Baker and friends sent out a press release spewing that the special meeting requested by Speaker of the Council Meredith Frailey and called by Chief Smith was illegal and unconstitutional. They even went so far as to claim that council attorney Todd Hembree stated as much. 

However, in the very document supposedly backing up this claim, Mr. Hembree never even used those words. Perhaps they are counting on the fact that no one will read the opinion. But we did and we hope you will too. Go ahead, just click here.

In fact, according to Article 7, Section 7 of the Constitution, the Chief CAN call a meeting and SET the agenda. The council doesn't have to like it or apparently show up, but it is NOT illegal. In fact, it's very constitutional, so much so that it is actually written INTO THE CONSTITUTION. 

It's pretty weak and misleading for Baker and Company to stretch an attorney's memo about council procedure into something bigger and more important than the constitutional authority of the Chief. 

A little teaser for tomorrow's Truth--there's something that looks a little unusual about Baker's news release today. Do you see it?

Election Limbo Day 40: To Meet or Not to Meet?

Friday there is a special council meeting with four agenda items, two of which are focused on the election and two of which are not.

The two election-related items are the appointment of the council’s election commission nominee, Susan Plumb, and potential election law changes.  The council chose not to take up the changes in committee last week, even though the majority of the committee voted to do so.  They needed two thirds of the vote to amend the agenda, and came up one vote short.  Baker was one of the votes against considering changing the laws, and he tells the Muskogee Phoenix that changes to the election law ‘would not be valid at this point,’ even though he asked the Supreme Court to change the rules himself just a few weeks ago.

In fact, Baker proposed seven different election law changes himself to the Supreme Court, and could have had the council consider them at last weeks committee meeting, but instead voted not to.

It will be interesting to see what he does tomorrow, because, it’s apparent that a lot of Cherokees, including Smith and Baker, think things could be improved in our election processes.

Smith seems to think Baker might not show up at all, and points out that Baker once supported penalties for council members who skipped meetings back during the crisis.  In the Muskogee Phoenix story earlier this week, Smith challenged Baker to show up, and Baker didn’t appear to answer whether he would be there or not.

If he’s not, it may have something to do with the other two items on the agenda, the appointments of Diane Hammons as Attorney General and Sharon Wright as Marshal.  Both of these appointments are for 5 year terms, which are intended to overlap chief terms in accordance with the Cherokee Constitution.  Their terms have expired, but some council members, including Hoskin and Crittenden who are in Baker’s camp, wanted to wait until after the September election to fill those slots, just in case Baker wins and he can appoint them instead.  That’s just politics, but the other two items could impact the quality of our election-- so it will be interesting to see if Baker and his friends who have been critical of the previous election show up, or if they try to keep a quorum from being assembled.

Added to the mix is the fact that council member David Thornton is recovering from heart surgery and likely won’t be at the meeting.  It takes twelve members to make a quorum, so we’ll see if they get that many and see if they address the election issues that both candidates (and their supporters) have raised over the past few months.

Election Limbo Days 37-39: Can't We All Just Get Along?

"Can't we all just get along?"
~ Rodney King

We stepped away for a few days because sometimes life just won't let you be online, and come back to find what we'd hope would end. There were some good conversations (we left those alone) and some outright catfights (which we removed). Plus a little conspiracy theory and potty-mouths thrown in for good measure.

So, for a few days we are going to turn off the "Post Button" - it should work where you can comment on posts we make, but people won't be able to write on our wall. Maybe if we all just cool our heads for a few days, we can come back fresh and ready to talk about the TRUTH.

Meanwhile, remember-- the deadline for Absentee Ballot requests is looming. Get them in to the Election Commission by August 12 at 5 pm. If you are an At Large Voter-- THIS IS YOUR ONLY WAY TO VOTE. So, if you don't request an absentee ballot, you won't be heard at the polls. If you requested an absentee ballot for the general or run-off election, you should automatically be mailed a ballot.

See the Election Commission's page to find out all the details and download your request.