An interesting point has recently been raised between candidates in the upcoming USCF election. The issue is how much should one spend to run a campaign to “win” a seat on the USCF Executive Board?
It has been described that the position on the Executive Board is non-paying, time-consuming and thankless one. Some candidates feel that voters would be turned off by the expenditure of tens of thousands of dollars on slick and misleading campaign mailers, slogans, ads, and songs. Some think that candidates should spend whatever it takes to “win” a seat. Some, who are not even running, spent outrageous sums to promote the candidates which can potentially bring personal and financial benefits to them. So which side is right and which side is wrong?
For the records, my husband and I did NOT make any special trip to campaign. We did NOT send out any mass mailing or emailing. We did NOT have mass (phone) calling campaign. We did NOT buy any political label from the USCF to spam the USCF members. We did NOT acquire “special” emailing lists from the USCF or other sources. We did not accept endorsements from ANYONE.
We ran purely on our records. We are very proud of what we have done for chess in the past 5-6 years and what we could do for the USCF if elected. We strongly believe that we can raise US Chess and the USCF to a much higher standard and level.
We did most of our campaigns on my blogs. We spent a total of around $50 in this election. We did our work the grassroots way. We decided to run to fix the problems and help improve US Chess and the USCF. We did not run to become chess politicians. We did not decide to run to become a part of the problems. I personally recommended Mikhail Korenman, Paul Truong and Randy Bauer because I feel they can best help the USCF now. I gave my reasons and logic for recommending them.
Frankly, I am quite disgusted with the USCF destructive, dirty and vicious politics. I am stunned at some of campaigning tricks from some members of the Executive Board. I would have to say that there is on an average at least a few dozen posts insulting, attacking, demeaning and lying about me or my husband.
It is like reading the National Enquirer with a lot more venom. But this board feels that it is justified for the USCF to spend big money for liability insurance so that their front men can do the damage to their opponents. Then there are physical and legal threats from front men of some of these candidates.
This is why the USCF is constantly in trouble. Some people, including some current and past board members, have no problem sending out offensive post cards, emails and other literatures with completely false information to attack and harm their opponents and mislead the USCF members. I find these tactics from our leaders appalling. Instead of putting the best interest of the USCF and US Chess first, too many people put their own agenda and ego ahead of everything else.
This is why the USCF lost 3 potential million dollar sponsorship deals. This is why the USCF lost money in 9 of the last 11 years. But of course you do not hear about these things because it is not in their best interests for you to know.
What is your take? Should candidates or people who are not in the running spend tens and thousands of dollars misleading USCF members to “win” the election or “put in” people who favor their agenda more? Or do you think that this is fair game and everyone should use “every” tactic to win the election?
Any candidate can spend any amount they want. It’s a free country.
I vote for Goichberg and Schultz to run the USCF permanently. Your majesty has no business running in this election. Why don’t you go back to where you belong and leave the USCF alone. There’s nothing wrong with it.
I find the actions of Goichberg and non-action of Schultz and Channing reprehensible. They have no problem with either trashing or have other trash other candidates. When Jones said something about Schultz, Channing insulted him. When thousands of other posts popped up to insult Susan and Paul, Channing and Schultz just sit there and pretend they don’t know anything about it. How stupid do you think everyone is? That’s why it’s time for these guys to go. They’re a bunch of disgraceful board members.
Susan, drop out now. It’s not too late. A woman doesn’t belong on the board. Go back to playing chess and leave the USCF to others.
BN
Dlugy, Seirawan, Donaldson, and others tried to rescue the USelessCF from the clueless idiots who run it, and they all put themselves through a lot of hassle without making a difference. Why does Susan want to deal with this? I have no idea. Can she make a difference in a way those other strong players couldn’t? Who really cares at this point? It’s called the USelessCF for a good reason.
I went to the local game store and got a really nice chess set for about 20 dollars. They didn’t ask me whether I was a USelessCF member. I got an analog wind-up chess clock in Budapest for about 7 dollars (it’s made in Romania) and I like it better than the USelessCF quartz clocks that cost 7x as much. So for 27 dollars I can play all the chess I want without being a USelessCF member.
So who needs the USelessCF? I hope Susan gets tired of it quickly. Her blog is much more informative and valuable than the USelessCF’s magazine “Chess Lies”.
Susan, the story that the USelessCF was once interested in buying out the CCA is crazy. It should have been the other way around. The CCA should buy the USelessCF since it pretty much owns it already and should pay something for it. Anyone trying to fix the USCF’s problems by getting better sponsorship or treating members better or anything like that simply doesn’t understand the purpose of the USelessCF, which is to funnel money to the CCA. Susan herself doesn’t seem to understand this, so no wonder there is conflict.
Meanwhile chess can get along perfectly well without the USelessCF -or- the CCA.. Susan has much better things to do with her talent and energy. So, I just don’t see why she bothers with this USelessCF election.
I agree with the last poster. Goichberg owns the USCF for a long time. That’s why he has a lot of enemies. He doesn’t care about the USCF. He only cares about CCA and he’s willing to harm the USCF so he can make his profit. That’s why I won’t every play in a CCA event anymore. The last straw was the post cards that he sent out. It’s tasteless and showed his true colors.
I think the current state of the USCF and American chess is abysmal, rotten to the core, and total garbage!!! You have convicts, bullys, cowards, thieves, and liars sitting on The Board as conmen stealing money and worse sabotaging U.S. chess! These morons and thugs on The Board use threats, lies, and insults to intimidate any other person or group who wants to oppose them for re-election. Last time I checked this is 2007 America, not 1920’s Mafia controlled Al Capone Chicago days! Do we really want these ship of fools in office to continue to corrupt and pollute United States chess?! Small countries around the globe put the richest and most powerful country on earth to shame when it comes to chess and its organization! Susan is a 4 time World Champion and a chess professional who from personal experience knows everything there is to know about chess, organizing, and demonstrating leadership. Ms. Polgar and her team are totally qualified to revolutionize American chess and bring back to life the rotting corpse that is the USCF!!
Do The Right Thing!
Vote For Susan and Her Team!
“Susan, drop out now. It’s not too late. A woman doesn’t belong on the board. Go back to playing chess and leave the USCF to others.
BN “
Is this serious? I cannot believe anyone would be such a bigot and post such a message.
Good luck Susan! You can do it!!!
Niall
I agree with Anon, first poster. Whatever resources you would like to committ, then it’s fine. What isn’t fine is if donations are solicited for favors in the future. I’m glad Susan you didn’t have to spend much money, you are very lucky that your blog is one of the best in chess and is read worldwide. Along with your previous accomplishments, I think this gives you a huge advantage over your opponents. Having the luck of being placed first on ballet also helps. I hope you and your suggested team win in a landslide to show a MANDATE for change. Henry
It is true that the current board — Goichberg, Channing, Schultz and others — are playing a game with obvious double standards. GM Susan Polgar ) is attacked every day on the USCF issues forum by people who have done next to nothing positive for chess in their lives (and can barely play the game) and no one pulls the posts. The current committee (now that all of the people with spines resigned) are afraid of Brian Lafferty suing them so they do nothing. Meanwhile, one post makes a reference to Channing and Schultz as Goichberg’s lapdogs (and not even directly) and it is yanked. Similarly, one post is mildly critical of Don Schultz for campaigning and Channing has a fit about it and one post is somewhat critical of Joe Lux (and rightfully reminds the reader that he jumped to wrong conclusions twice about GM Polgar) and they pull that post. There is something really wrong there. I wonder what would happen if people started posting on that forum, referring to Goichberg as “the King” or “Le Roi.” It’s sort of true, he runs the USCF and CCA and has a monopoly on chess in this country.
>>The last straw was the post cards that he sent out. It’s tasteless and showed his true colors. >>
Everybody seems to know about these postcards, but nobody seems to know exactly what they said. I’m a voting member and never got one. The strange secrecy about their contents makes me question whether they exist at all.
In regards to the postcards, they do exist and I did receive one. From other commentators, it appears you only got them i f you were on a mailing list, maybe one of players who played in one of the national level tourneys in hte past (e.g. National, World Opens, etc.)
for the one who said susan drop out wht wrong u afraid a woman is smarter then man can du things rite way how dare u u better then ne 1 else not dont think so y r they not defendin themself cowards they r shame on u all of u imature children is wht we r dealin with on current board gro up du rite thing if u kno how
If I go to the USCF Forums there is a Brenen Nierman of VA USCF rating 1294 who joined the forums on May 31, 2007 less than a month ago. He constantly uses the term Her Majesty. His postings are incredible. He claims he voted for Susan Polgar and then spends all his time saying why he made a mistake. Hard to believe he did vote for Susan with his attitude.
I can only guess that Brenen is a Front Man who pops up to attack and then hopefully will disappear after the election is complete. The previous month we had another person pop up to attack. From his post here on Susan’s blog it seems obvious that he is a front man for Goichberg and Schultz. He uses the name Anti-Polgar and yet claims on Forums to have voted for Polgar. haha.
The situation at the uscf has deteriorated badly.
BN is simply Brenen Nierman a troll put out here by Goichberg and Schultz. I think he is well paid for his efforts.
This is the way politicians spend their money. Hire an assassin who will blog all day and night attacking your opponent. Brenen is simply the attack man for the month.
Of course the politicians claim it is not them.
>>Is this serious? I cannot believe anyone would be such a bigot and post such a message.
Good luck Susan! You can do it!!!
Niall >>
Goichberg hints on his board (I won’t give the link unless somebody asks) that posts like these are planted here by Susan herself, and gives several examples of posts that run along the lines of “Hi, I’m a racist, sexist bigot and I think you should vote for Schultz, Sloan, et cetera and against Susan.”
While these posts are clearly written by somebody who really means the exact opposite of what he’s saying, I wouldn’t go so far as to accuse Susan or anyone else. They could be written totally without her knowledge by well-meaning idiots who want to help her and aren’t too scrupulous about how they do it.
But here’s one area where the ball IS in her court. She’s attacked the existing board constantly on the grounds that posts exactly like this have been allowed to stand undeleted in the USCF Forums. In that case, where’s the logic in allowing them to remain here? If she won’t even delete these kinds of posts herself, how can she attack others for not deleting them?
Clean this blog up first, and then I’ll believe she’ll do an equally good job on the USCF Forums.
Candidates (and supporters) are free to spend as little or as much as they wish and can afford in their attempts to get (their candidate) elected.
It’s no more “wrong” to spend billions of dollars than it is to spend nothing. Furthermore, neither approach is necessarily more effective than the other in achieving the desired end result.
Though it *can* make a difference where campaign money comes from . . .
Welcome to the world of politics!
Speaking of campaigning, I am curious to see what kind of campaigning is going on at King Bill’s World Open this weekend. Do you think he has piles of his obnoxious postcards out? I am sure his flunkies are out in force.
Something that’s been bothering me for a while. I’ve seen Joe Lux at a few tournaments and the photo of him that accompanies his candidate statement in Chess Life doesn’t look anything like him. I’m curious about how old that photo is and whether using a very outdated photo could be misleading to the voters. Don’t even get me started with the Sam Sloan “family photo.” Where are his other six or eight kids? But at least that is accompanied by a statement that gives some indication of his bizarre personal life.
FWIW, I showed my non-chessplaying wife all of the candidate statements (no names attached) and she IMMEDIATELY recognized Susan’s as the most professional, most inspiring for US Chess. To her it was a no-brainer based solely on candidate statements. When you take into account people’s history of behavior, no one could possibly argue that they acre more for (or have done more for) US Chess than Susan.
the current board is truly embarrassing (concerning the horrible personal attacks, trolling, etc.). They really are acting like a bunch of 5th graders…which does nothing to improve the negative image of chess players started by fischer (with social ineptitude and arrogance).
Go Susan!
–Mike S.
From the south part of the american continent…..
GOOOOOOO SUSAN GOOOOOOO.
We all vote you !.
Some people do not have a blog, so they use other methods to campaign which may be more expensive. Those are just personal choices. It’s normal to sacrifice time – and money – to serve in politics, even USCF politics. Politics is not a bad thing in itself. Imagine a world with no politicians (therefore no laws and no lawyers too) .. not so great after all.
It’s their money. They can spend it however they wish.
>>Is this serious? I cannot believe anyone would be such a bigot and post such a message.
Good luck Susan! You can do it!!!
Niall >>
Goichberg hints on his board (I won’t give the link unless somebody asks) that posts like these are planted here by Susan herself, and gives several examples of posts that run along the lines of “Hi, I’m a racist, sexist bigot and I think you should vote for Schultz, Sloan, et cetera and against Susan.”
Well I can assure you that I am a real human being and that Susan has nothing to do with my posts.
My name is Niall Woodger. Age 22 from Luxembourg and if you really would like to check further, please do email me on niall.woodger@googlemail.com
Then you might begin to realise that you are a sexist bigot if you believe a woman can not run for election, and then blame her for making fake posts when they are nothing of the sort!!
Niall
Niall Woodger wrote:
>>
Then you might begin to realise that you are a sexist bigot if you believe a woman can not run for election, and then blame her for making fake posts when they are nothing of the sort!!
Niall
>>
Well, if you wrote that post, Niall, and you’re telling us now that it wasn’t fake, it was what you really believe, then okay, you’re a bigot. Shame on you for that, but I’m not going to vote for somebody JUST because some guy in Luxemburg tells me not to. I’ll vote for whoever I think is best, thanks.
“Well, if you wrote that post, Niall, and you’re telling us now that it wasn’t fake, it was what you really believe, then okay, you’re a bigot. Shame on you for that, but I’m not going to vote for somebody JUST because some guy in Luxemburg tells me not to. I’ll vote for whoever I think is best, thanks. “
I did not tell you who to vote for and quite how you can call ME bigot when you wrote ” A woman doesn’t belong on the board” is beyond me.
Niall