2010 Election Updates

The deadline for the $250 filing fee and signatures for the executive board passed on January 11th, so nominations are now closed. Although there are two spots open on the board, there are only three candidates that will get statements in Chess Life. This is the lowest # of candidates, special election or not, since OMOV (One Member, One Vote) was enacted in 2003. Whether people were afraid of being sued, wer not interested in the only 1-year term (they would have to run for re-election in 2011 since they are completing Susan Polgar and Paul Truong's terms [2007-2011] in order to stay on the board], or something else entirely, the choices are very limited this year barring a write-in campaign.

The three Candidates are (in alphabetical order):

Mike Nietman: He's been president of the Wisconsin Chess Federation for 20 some odd years now, and is (was?) the chair of the Scholastic Committee. He is a life member and has by far the most impressive purely chess experience of the three. My one criticism is that he is neither active in the USCF forums, nor has a website or blog of his own.

Nietman run for the executive board once before, in 2009. He finished a distant 6th out of 11 candidates with 732 votes (Mike Atkins finished in 4th place with 2672)

Sam Sloan: He is a former executive board member (2006-2007). He sued the USCF and the members of the Executive board shortly after the 2007 election over the "Fake Sam Sloan (FSS)". Someone (allegedly Paul Truong, another nominee in 2007) posted hundreds of online defamtory comments online claiming to be Sam Sloan. I'm not sure of most of the details, but the deal-breaker for me is that he sued the organization and as a result thousands of dollars that could have been spent on chess were instead spent on litigiation.

Sloan has run every election year since OMOV started in 2003. He finished 5th (top 3 elected) in 2003, 3rd (top 2 elected) in 2004, 8th (top 4 elected) in 2005, 2nd in 2006 (elected), 9th (top 4 elected) in 2007, and 9th in 2009.

Gary Walters: Like Nietman and Sloan, he is a class A player. Unlike them though, he is a very active correspondence player, he is currently playing in the 2009 Absolute Championship, 2010 Absolute Championship, 18th United States Correspondence Chess Championship (USCCC), and a preliminary section of the 33rd world championship. He has a very active blog and is also active on the USCF Forums. He has little or no experience organizing or directing tournaments, but his experience as a lawyer could prove valuable with all of the suits that USCF is involved in.

This will be the first time that Walters has run for the Executive Board.


With three candidates and only two spots, unless Nietman or Walters decides to sue the USCF, it looks like I'll be voting for them in June.