The CSM 9 elections will end on Tuesday. With activity winding down, I thought I'd just bring to light something I found interesting. Despite some talk about electing 6 candidates from their slate to the CSM, the CFC election team apparently is concentrating on pushing the vote out for podcaster and CFC line member Xander Phoena, the fourth person on their list.
Xander, despite his status of flying with Gentlemen's Agreement, is more of a CSM insider candidate. He provided amazing coverage on the Crossing Zebras podcast of last year's election and continued that interest throughout the term of CSM 8. So while a late push within Xander's alliance was expected, the fact he was the only candidate interviewed by TheMittani.com was mildly surprising. But I attribute that fact to the warm regard that Xander is held by those in power more than his status in the CFC.
Two other data points lead to the conclusion of Xander's status of a candidate of the current powers. Ripard Teg, either by coincidence or with planning with fellow permanent delegate mynnna, arranged his top endorsements of Ali Aras and Xander to line up with the official CFC recommendations that ranked Ali third and Xander fourth.
But the most obvious of all was CSM 8 Chairman TreborDaehdoow's recommended voting list for those whose main focus is industry. His ranking of Xander as the second best candidate for industrialists over Sugar Kyle indicates either a complete lack of knowledge and/or disdain for those engaged in low sec industry and trading, or an effort to dupe high sec carebears into voting for a null sec PvP grunt. But after watching Trebor operate for so long on the CSM, totally expected behavior.
This is my final post on the CSM 9 election. If you are an EVE player and haven't voted yet, please do so. The CSM actually does influence design decisions in the game. If you still don't know who to vote for, my top two recommendations are Sugar Kyle and Mike Azariah. Remember, the polls close Tuesday.
I did not realize that Ali Aras was a null sec cartel sympathizer. I should have clued in when I realized she is a contributor to the goon Pravda site. Of the top 4 the goons are electing, she was the one I actually voted for.
ReplyDeleteI now regret that, very much.
As far as I can tell, Ali Aras is beloved by everyone who has met her.
DeleteI was incredibly surprised when I discovered how far up the GSF ballot she is, considering the only reason I can come up with is that Mynnna whispered in someone's ear that they really ought to include the single most dedicated member of CSM8 high on their ballot. Noir has actually been shooting at the goons a lot lately.
This election has seen some candidates get support from people outside of their groups. For example, both mynnna and Ali Aras have received support from people throughout the community. I've read a lot of comments and posts that follow the archetype of "mynnna may be a Goon, but..." before they explain that he is committed to the process, intelligent, and hard working. The reality is that this year's CSM was as good as a "peace-time" CSM has ever been, and that has shown in the number of incumbents, null-sec or otherwise, who have been supported by people throughout our community.
DeleteVote Sugar 2014!
ReplyDeleteI... think you're looking for things that aren't there. While I'm little more than an occasional contributor to TMC these days, I suspect the actual reason why he's the only one to have been interviewed is that he's the only one that reached out
ReplyDeleteAnd, our own list is very much a committee creation, and neither trebor nor ripard are well loved by many in that committee; believe me when I say that any appearance of coordination is quite coincidental.
ah, yes. of course. strange things, those coincidences.... :-) nhf mate
DeleteI did mention it could be a coincidence. But if that's the way that a lot of people with normally disparate views come out, then I think my point that Xander is basically a candidate looked upon favorably by the CSM establishment is correct.
Delete