by I received my ballot for the 2023 NRA Board of Directors election in today’s mail. Unlike in past years, I will not be making any endorsements. Let me explain my reasoning.
First, there are no petition candidates running for the Board in this election. Every candidate – good, bad, or indifferent – is on the ballot thanks to the efforts of the Nominating Committee. Everyone has been vetted to some extent and is considered “safe”. The committee is chaired by the ultimate insider and “Friend of Wayne” Kayne Robinson. The vice-chair is Janet Nyce who, if you attended the 2022 Meeting of Members will remember, declared those of us who want reform as “the enemy within”.
Second, while I will probably vote for a couple of people on the list that I know fairly well, any endorsement from me would be counter-productive to their chances. My reporting on the NRA’s troubles has earned me no friends in Fairfax and my endorsement would make them suspect if elected.
Third, it just doesn’t matter. One potential reformer or even two will be ostracized by the rest of the Board. I have heard how good people like Judge Phil Journey and Frank Tait have been treated like something the dog dragged in by the rest of the Board. The shameful juvenile conduct of the majority of the Board is disgusting. Moreover, you have elderly hacks like Walt Walter re-nominated while an accomplished attorney like Graham Hill was not re-nominated thanks to hostility towards him by Kayne Robinson.
If change is going to come to the NRA – and it will – it will be from outside. It will either come from a Bankruptcy Court as Rocky Marshall postulates or it will come as a result of the New York Attorney General’s lawsuit. People who think the NRA is going to win in court in Manhattan are willfully ignorant. Anyone who has followed the trial knows that things are not going that well for the NRA. The only thing that might be considered a win is that dissolution has been taken off the table by Judge Cohen. Add in the NRA’s incomprehensible decision to ask for a jury trial in Manhattan and you know it won’t go well.
I’m at the point where I won’t vote for anyone nominated. I’m thinking I probably won’t mail in a ballot to help show continued decline in participation by members and highlight the complete failure of Wayne and the current Board to engage a growing gun owning population.
I think the alternative to not voting is to send in a spoiled ballot with a big X across all the candidates. They have to report both the number of ballots sent as well as the number of spoiled ballots.
They have no intention of winning. Their goal is to loot and bleed the organization for as long as they can.