A Sad Day for the GPUS

Ever since the Tulsa Convention there has been much to-do about the seat left vacant on the nationsl GPUS Steering Committee as a result of the elections leavning such a vacancy. There recently came about a proposal from California regarding this, with two people up for being placed in the vacant seat, each sharing the votes by half.

Today, Tom Sevigny, one of the two, and the person who won the election via the voting method that was used in Tulsa (one of the points of contention is the actual voting method), resigned from the party all together. A veteran Green, he’s had it.

This has made me very sad.

There has been a lot of arguing on the list today about what will happen next. There has been little remorse and shame over this tragedy – no, hardly any. Only arguing.

Here is Tom’s message:
I was fairly elected in Tulsa to the SC by a process that has elected previous SC members over a number of years. However, upon figuring out that an alternative voting method would mean that Kristen would be elected, various members of the NC decided to challenge the vote. Somehow, I do not think if our roles were reversed and I would have been elected by an alternative method, those same individuals would have challenged the vote. Which gets to one of the reasons for my resignation: the subverting of what’s good for the party for petty factional politics. I entered into a compromise with Kristen because I felt it was needed to move the party forward, but even that effort was subverted by Florida’s insistence that it only needed to pass by a simple majority despite the fact that even my 5 year old could see that the compromise would require at least a suspension of the bylaws and therefore require a 2/3 majority — again, petty factional political crap.

Tom Sevigny