Bill John Baker, The First Day

As we noted last night, there was an abrupt transition of power yesterday, as APCSJC moved down a spot on the pecking order and Baker was sworn in about 6 hours after the Supreme Court cleared the path for him to do so.

The abrupt transition apparently continued today.   Baker sent out an email today saying that he has appointed Chuck Hoskin, Sr. as his Chief of Staff and let six group leaders go, while putting three other “senior level employees” were put on administrative leave. 

It stands to reason that Baker will want to bring in some of his own people.  It also stands to reason that he’s seen the Cherokee Nation up close as a council member for the last eight years, and he even acknowledges that the folks Smith has had running the various departments have done a “good” (but not “great”) job. 

We hope that, in the interest of transparency, he'll tell us who he's putting on leave and who he's letting go, and maybe even why.  It would make sense for people who are doing a "good" job to keep doing it, right?

But Baker also told the Cherokee Phoenix last night that he was looking for a “‘world-class team of leaders’ to help guide the nation and said he needs suggestions from the Cherokee citizenry.”  So it looks like resumes are going to be accepted.

With Baker’s emphasis on Cherokee hiring, we assume that he’ll bring in Cherokees with better resumes and experience to replace any Cherokees who-- he says-- aren't "world-class."  Regardless, we hope that he’s treating Cherokee citizens and employees with courtesy, respect, and maybe some of those hugs he has left over from last night.

Election Limbo Part Two, Day THE LAST: Baker Swears, Hugs

Photo Courtesy KTUL: Baker takes the oath on the Courthouse steps

Bill John Baker is Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.  

The Cherokee Nation Supreme Court threw out the election appeal filed by Smith, and Baker hurried down to the courthouse tonight, where he was sworn in by Justice Jim Wilcoxen.

Baker told the Daily Oklahoman:

“It is time to bring our Cherokee family together and move our nation from good to great. I deeply appreciate the Cherokee people for placing their faith in my leadership.”

Channel 8’s online story included a statement from Smith as well, which read in part:  “I acknowledge that Bill John Baker has been elected to the Office of Principal Chief and offer him any help I may provide in building the Nation I so love, and have been honored to serve for the past 12 years.”

Fox 23 already has video of Baker up on their web site, and he declares his first order of business is to hug every single person he possibly can.

So election limbo is over.  APCSJC gets to ease into his preferred job of Deputy Chief, Meredith Frailey heads back over to the Council House and Bill John Baker is Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

Election Limbo Part II Day 23: A Man Who Needs No Introduction

Say you are getting ready for the biggest day of your life-- something you’ve been working towards for years. You are throwing a party. You get to pick the person who introduces you to the world in your new role. Do you pick a guy who is best known for pleading guilty to campaign finance violations while in office and spending 34 months of a 48 month term facing impeachment before narrowly escaping? No? Well, that may be why you aren’t about to be chief of the Cherokee Nation and Bill John Baker is!

When Baker said David Walters was introducing him, we were thinking maybe there was a respected Cherokee elder somewhere out there also named David Walters that he was bringing in.  But nope.  It’s this guy…

Former OK Governor David Walters

Certainly David Walters isn’t the worst guy in the world, but he is a walking scandal.  His election campaign was so crooked it resulted in 20 indictments, including his own.  He was personally charged with eight felonies but got out of them by pleading guilty to a misdemeanor.

Right to left: State Rep. Anastasia Pittman (OKC), David Walters, Kalyn Free

Walters has made a comeback.  After all, he was a big shot for Barack Obama at his presidential convention three years ago.  If you don’t believe us, just ask the "barackopedia." 

Tell us what you think.  Does having a non-Cherokee scandal magnet headlining your inauguration seem like a smart move to you?

Election Limbo Part II, Day 22: Opposite Directions

We took a few days off (because we have real lives, after all) and when we sat down tonight to decide what to write about, we found out that Smith and Baker have two different ideas about what the next step is with our election, which isn’t surprising.  

Baker sent out an announcement today, setting the time and date for his inauguration.  Just in case you don’t get an engraved personal invitation, the Cherokee Phoenix was kind enough to tell us that it is at the Sequoyah Gym in Tahlequah at 2 pm on November 6.  According to the Phoenix “Former Oklahoma Governor David Walters will serve as master of ceremonies and the chiefs of all three federally recognized Cherokee tribes will be present.”  So the UKB is trying to get along with Baker. They banished Smith for opposing “efforts by the UKB to have Keetoowah land put in trust by the Cherokee County Commissioners.”

Cherokee Truth's cat?

Putting aside the fact the Cherokee County Commissioners can’t put land into trust any more than Cherokee Truth’s cat, Baker and the UKB are certainly more chummy than Smith and the UKB were.

 

And what Smith up to today while Baker was making party plans?  Well, he was trying to get the whole election thrown out, or stopped, or at least keep Baker from getting sworn in.  Smith filed an appeal with the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court, which one of our readers forwarded on to us, and you can read for yourself.

Basically he asks that the Cherokee court stop Baker from being sworn in until the federal court decides whether freedmen should be citizens or not.  Or, as he puts it: “If non-Indian Freedmen have citizenship  rights based on the treaty, then Bill John Baker should be chief.  If they don’t, then the court would have to order yet another election, because the acting chief disregarded the Cherokee Nation Constitution.” 

Baker’s response?  Poppycock! (Or the Cherokee version of that).  He put out a statement tonight saying he is “not going to let this baseless lawsuit keep me from moving forward.”  He didn’t address the freedmen issue at all.

The question for a few days was whether Smith would ask for a recount or not.  It looks like he skipped that and went straight to court at the same time Baker was heading for an inauguration.

Election Limbo Part II, Day 19: Freedmen Say They Want this to “All be Over.”

Now that Bill John Baker has been certified the winner, his supporters appear to be lining up.  Notably, the freedmen, who told reporters now that Baker is elected they are “confident in him until he shows me different…. I’m just hoping and praying this will all be over with.”

When they say “all be over with,” we get the unsettling feeling that they are talking about our Constitutional amendment.  As we pointed out yesterday, APCSJC did what he could to make this “all over with,” by single-handedly reversing the Cherokee Nation’s Supreme Court, much to their dismay.  Should we expect the same flagrant disregard for the Constitution from Baker?

The freedmen seem to think so.  Their attorney, Ralph Keen, said, “The freedmen remain in a good position to continue to assert their rights.  My hope is the freedmen and the Cherokee Nation will meet and reconcile.”

There certainly are ways for the Cherokee Nation and the freedmen to reconcile:  we could have a new constitutional amendment to allow them to have citizenship.  Or a court, somewhere, (the federal Nash case maybe) could rule that the Cherokee Nation is currently in violation of the treaty of 1866 in relation to the freedmen.  If a court has ever done so (and not been overturned when the Cherokee Nation fought for its rights), we don’t know about it.

Otherwise, the Chief can’t ‘reconcile’ our Constitution.  The Tribal Council can’t ‘reconcile’ our Constitution.  Only the Cherokee people can do it.  

Or we could lose in federal court.  And don’t get us started on Cherokees who want the Cherokee Nation to lose in federal court!  Remember, the freedmen have asked repeatedly to have the Cherokee Nation terminated as a tribe.  So if you are a Cherokee who thinks the freedmen cause is just, by all means talk to your council member or start a petition to change the Constitution.  Because only Cherokees should decide who is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

So what does Baker say about all this?  "I'm pleased it's now in an Oklahoma court…and I will simply wait and see what the ruling is."

We hope he does, rather than try to ‘reconcile’ our Constitution.  But that’s not what the freedmen think.  They are “upbeat about Baker as chief.  ‘Bill John Baker has got a new regime and hopefully he'll start off in a better direction... I believe we will get a better shake.’”

You can get a better shake from your favorite old-timey malt shop.  We just hope that Baker, unlike Crittenden, remembers he is not a soda jerk.

Election Limbo Part II, Day 18: Supreme Court Flips the Bird

Lots happening in the last couple of days, so there is a lot to analyze.  Initially, we thought it would be 48 hours before the election commission certified the results, and we could talk about the CN’s Supreme Court ruling.  But the Election Commission finished up today instead, and the results look a lot like they did before.  The totals ended up being 10,703 to 9128.  No big surprise there.  

The Cherokee Nation also released information about timelines for appeals, and it looks like October 24 would bethe earliest date for an inauguration. That would be after the timelines for recount and appeal.  If there is an appeal, it would be after that.

Why would there be an appeal?  Well, as we alluded to yesterday, the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court gave a big middle finger to APCSJC by issuing an order saying Crittenden “entered into an agreement… that contained terms that were in direct violation of the Constitution and an order of this court….”.  The order also said that APCSJC “had no authority under the Constitution to bind the Cherokee People to an agreement without their consent when such agreement would violate a provision of the Cherokee Nation Constitution.” 

That agreement, FYI, was the agreement that made Freedmen citizens again, right before the federal judge was about to rule that they weren’t.

  

The Justices are basically telling everyone that the election, where hundreds of Freedmen voted and hundreds of late votes were counted in Baker’s home town, should have ended on September 24, because that is what Cherokee Nation’s laws said to do.  But it’s not what S. John Crittenbaker wanted, so it’s not the deal they made with the freedmen and BIA.  The deal they made broke tribal law, and the Supreme Court sat up, took notice, and made said metaphorical gesture.

 

So how will this all shake out? Baker will want the freedmen votes to count, because he won.  Smith would probably want the election thrown out, because it was done in violation of tribal law (and he lost).  The Cherokee people probably just want it all to be over.

Election Limbo Part II, Day 17: Unofficial Results are in!

Baker hugs his mom after the unofficial results
were announced tonight.
Photo Courtesy of Tulsa World.

Almost all the votes have been counted, and we have what APPEARS to be a winner in the chief's race:  Bill John Baker.  According to the Cherokee Nation web site, Baker has 10,633 votes and Smith has 9099 in the unofficial results.

The Associated Press story has quotes from both Smith and Baker.  Smith said he was "disappointed... not just for myself but also for the people who worked so hard on this campaign, and the thousands upon thousands of Cherokees who supported this campaign and what we stand for."

Baker told the reporters: "The Cherokee people have spoken and I am humbled and honored to be selected to lead our great nation the next four years ... this has been a difficult and tough campaign for everyone but the campaign is behind us."

The Tulsa World also had some good quotes from the candidates and information on the election and an otherwise blockbuster decision from the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court, but that's probably fodder for tomorrow's Cherokee Truth.  Tonight it is enough to know that unless our Election Commission accidentally counted 1000 votes for Baker that should've been for Smith, or unless some unlikely appeal occurs, we know who our next chief will be.

Election Limbo Part II, Day 16: Watching Paint Dry

In an "instant gratification" world, waiting for these election results is TORTURE. But, we can appreciate the Election Commission's commitment to accuracy. 

All that we know of what has been happening is contained in a rundown-type press release that reads like the most boring diary in the world. How many ways can you say no votes were counted today? Well, read for yourself to find out.

It looks like the absentee ballots will be counted tomorrow-- but according to the press release, unofficial results won't be released until Wednesday.

Election Limbo Part II, Day 15: Let the Counting Begin

 

The Cherokee Nation Election Commission counted some ballots today.  About 10,300 of them, which was the total number of people who went to the polls on September 24, the ones who voted early and the ones who voted late.

As expected, Baker did well with those votes.  Or, probably better than expected.  According the election commission, and they are the only ones who matter, Baker has 2177 more votes than Smith at this point in the election, with the totals at: 6,223 for Baker and 4,046 for Smith. That’s a 61-39 split, which is great news for Baker.  That’s about 1400 more votes than he got from that group of voters before, which puts Smith behind by a big chunk.

 

Smith won the absentee voting in June, and as the election commission chair Susan Plumb says, “no winner is decided until the last Cherokee citizen’s vote is counted.”  The Cherokee Nation web site also says that the election commission “anticipates counting all absentee ballots and challenged ballots on Tuesday.  It is anticipated that all ballots will have been counted and the unofficial results published by Wednesday.”

The Associated Press talked to the candidates, who had this to say:  

"We are cautiously optimistic," said Baker's spokeswoman, Linda Gray Murphy. 

Smith, in an emailed statement, said: "With still about half the votes left to count, I'm still very confident with how this will turn out."

There are about 12,000 mail-in ballots out there, and Smith won those in June by about a 56-44% margin.  He’ll have to do better than that this time around or Baker will claim victory.

Election Limbo Part II, Day 14: John Blutarsky Edition

The voting is over right?  Please tell us the voting is over right?  That’s what the schedule says, that’s what the calendar says, but if there’s anything we’ve learned from this election, it’s that we should never say it’s over.   

We thought it was going to be over June 25.  Then we thought Baker won on the 26^th.  Then we thought Smith won on the 27^th.  Then we thought it would be over after the recount.  After the Election Commission botched that one, we thought it would be over after the court hearing, and their own personal recount.  We bet Smith hoped so too, because he was ahead then.  But was it over any of those times?   

Nope.  A new election was scheduled.  So we thought it would be over on September 24.  But then S. John Crittenbaker decided to extend the election two weeks for the freedmen, and then, AFTER ELECTION DAY, they decided SOME Cherokees could still vote, as long as, heaven forbid, they didn’t mail in their absentee ballots.  The Election Commission then decided that Cherokees who voted by mail deserved just as much an opportunity to vote as the ones who live in Tahlequah.  But it’s still not over.  Not even today.  Or tomorrow.

When will it be over?  Well, to quote an American icon:  “Nothing’s over until we decide it is!  Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?”

Ummmm…. No.  

We’re putting the over-under for the inauguration as Halloween.  Which side is the smart money on?

Stayed tuned: tomorrow we get unofficial, semi-formal, partial results from the election commission.

Cherokee Truth will tell you what the numbers mean tomorrow night.