7 Days Until the New Election:Truth Check

In the latest edition of the Cherokee Phoenix, both candidates got a column in the paper, and the Phoenix did their truth report as well (scroll down to page 6 for the columns, page 7 for the Truth report).

Baker used his column as basically a campaign ad.  The Phoenix ran a truth report on Baker’s column and found some information that didn’t add up.  Baker wrote that “the chief relates a story calling anyone who asks for services an ATM Cherokee, and then turns around and takes a $2 million plane for a test ride before the nation buys it.”

The Phoenix reports that Smith was quoting someone else when he mentioned the phrase ATM Cherokees, and applied it to people who only want a blue card to get benefits.  That’s not ‘anyone who asks for services.’

Also, Cherokee Nation didn’t buy the plane, and doesn’t own the plane.  Cherokee Nation Businesses owns the plane, or, as we like to call it Cherforce One, and the Nation pays to use it.  And we already confirmed here a couple of months ago that Smith had flown on the plane before CNB bought it.

The Truth report in the Phoenix also talks about how Baker did indeed accuse Smith of calling an illegal meeting, when in fact it was not an illegal meeting, and no one thinks so, even the guy Baker was relying on asa source for the his claim, council attorney Todd Hembree.  

The Cherokee Phoenix didn’t put Smith’s column through the truth test, probably because Smith didn’t use his column to trash talk Baker.  Smith instead talked about the lessons he learned from his mother, who recently passed away.  He says she lived her life trying to make the lives of others better, and that he has tried to follow her example.

Thanks to the folks at the Cherokee Phoenix for checking into some of the statements the candidates are making.

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.

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.

5 Days Until The Election- Partying Like It’s 1997

We decided to wait until after tonight’s council meeting to do the TRUTH tonight, and we’re kinda glad we did.  We had some campaign finance stuff ready to go, but there was some interesting action at the council meeting, so we’ll save that other stuff for later. 

We watched the video stream, and then afterwards got an email from Chad Smith’s campaign.  The email referenced a vote tonight, which repealed a couple of laws that have actually been referenced in campaign material and have been the subject of Cherokee Phoenix Truth Reports as well as some of our reports.

Basically, the council tonight was repealing the laws where Bill John Baker had made motions in illegal meetings (meetings without a quorum) in 1997.  Smith said during the council meeting, and in his news release, that Baker pushed these illegal measures when he should have known better.  To paraphrase, Smith basically said that the Constitution says a quorum is 2/3 of council, and that third grade math shows that 2/3=10/15, so a council meeting with 9 doesn’t work.

In 1997, Baker (and eight other council members) ignored that and went ahead with their illegal meetings.  Apparently, the repeal of this illegal law has been in front of the Rules Committee already this month and Smith’s email included a link to the May 2011 Rules Committee meeting, where he says just last month Baker voted twice to table a measure that would repeal the illegal laws and then finally voted against repealing them.  Check out this link to watch for yourself. (shuffle forward about an hour and 20 minutes or so into the video)

After viewing the link, that’s right.  However, tonight Baker reversed himself and asked to be a sponsor of the bill repealing the illegal actions of the 1997 council of which he was a part.  He made no explanation, so we won’t hazard a guess why he changed his mind, but not every council member did.  The final vote was 13-3 in favor of repealing the bill.

It will be interesting to see what, if anything, Baker has to say about why he changed his mind on the vote, and if he acknowledges that the 1997 actions were illegal or wrong.  He’s avoided that one so far.  Smith, on the other hand, is starting to pick at Baker’s record.  Baker has been hitting Smith’s record hard,  often taking things out of context to do so, but now is Baker’s opportunity to give us some context as to why he changed his vote and to defend his 1997 actions.