Today, that democratic outburst has fallen victim to a single slate of candidates supported by "The Committee to Strengthen KPFK," a powerful amalgam of Local Station Board members, station staff, and new faces, and endorsed by attorney Carol Spooner, one of the key figures in the original effort to democratize Pacifica. And they have injected the influence of a financed election and Democratic Party politics into an institution that prides itself on being "powered by the people." The Committee and procedural violations threaten to confuse and discourage candidates, and endanger the quorum necessary for election certification.

Lack of oversight, improper procedures, and an insider Committee so arrogant that rules seem meant to be broken, are spreading a viscous taint on the credibility of any election outcome. At the same time, a blackout on election violations is so thorough, the determination to make quorum so overpowering after the near-failure of previous elections, that much of the electorate is unaware that infractions have occurred. Even candidates who file complaints receive, at most and only occasionally, an acknowledgment that their complaint has been received.

Already, in the fifth week of the campaign, the Committee To Strengthen KPFK has wantonly violated several of the eleven simple rules laid out for fair elections. The KPFK andidate webpages and broadcast archives, under the control of Committee member and tation webmaster Ali Lexa, been used for numerous inequities in publishing candidate information. And the procedures and timetable of election events distributed to the candidates and posted on the station website for voters has been altered with little or no notification to the voters and the candidates. To date, no sanctions have been announced to repair the damage to independent candidates or to inform the voters.

The Pacifica National Board, recognizing the serious disadvantage the mailer poses to low- and moderate-income independent candidates, and that "spending of large sums of money in Pacifica campaigns runs counter to the noncommercial nature of the Pacifica Radio Network while underscoring the discriminatory nature of campaign financing so prevalent and objectionable in mainstream elections," moved on November 1 to begin a process to find remediation for the disadvantaged candidates. The discussion of specific remedies began at the KPFK Local Station Board meeting on Wednesday, November 7. Candidate Jubilee Shine told the local board, "I am here to represent workers. I'm a roofer and a union activist. I couldn't get $7,000 for a flyer for this campaign. I couldn't raise $300." In order to implement the remedies, the board discussed the possibility of a further election delay, to December 21.

Aaron formed the Committee to spearhead a campaign to remove progressive, lesbian, and African general manager Eva Georgia in light of a sexual harassment suit filed against her and the network. In July, the Committee presented a petition calling for her removal to the Pacifica National Board, the culmination of a five-year campaign to oust Georgia with a plethora of accusations that began even before a staffer denied her the keys to her office when Georgia officially took over leadership of the station. The Committee invited local media to the board meeting held in Los Angeles, and the event was reported in the LA Times. Throughout the summer, the press was fed accusations, and articles without context appeared in the LA Weekly (twice), where reporters salivated over the charges of Black lesbian sexual misconduct. Meanwhile, the PNB, the CEO, and the CFO stood behind Georgia with unreported public statements of support. The lawsuit is still pending, and Pacifica insiders seem confident that Georgia will be vindicated in court.

Aaron chaired the LSB in 2006 until her term ended and she was voted out. During her tenure, she forced the local board into numerous closed sessions to present sundry charges against Georgia. One, an expense report purported to show Georgia's misuse of station funds but discredited by the Pacifica CFO, Lonny Hicks, was circulated widely among station staff despite its confidentiality.

Aaron, along with Committee members and the slate's other two returning candidates, Lamont Yeakey and Donna Warren, during earlier elections were members of a slate known as Progressives for Independent, Responsible Community Radio. PIRCR and slates at other stations in the network were organized by Spooner from Pacifica members who had opposed ensuring elected representation for underrepresented communities in the new Pacifica Bylaws.

The Committee To Strengthen KPFK and Spooner, after roundly condemning Georgia for bringing a lawsuit down on the network, are contemplating their own lawsuit against Pacifica for refusing to include their partisan mailer with the ballot mailing, according to Committee member Ian Masters in his November 4 broadcast (since edited out of the archived version of the broadcast).

Slate members Ricco Ross, Linda Sutton, Dan Wang, and Ahjamu Makalani, according to their election materials, are all active in the Progressive Democrats of America, a faction of the Democratic Party, raising alarm bells about mainstream party funding and takeover of the "fiercely independent" radio station. Makalani, who has moved from the Peace and Freedom Party and the Green Party to vice chair of the Progressive Democrats, explained that they were supporting John Edwards in the national elections because, "Kucinich wasn't a viable candidate."

Other Committee candidates include Aaron, Summer Reese, Donna Warren, Lamont Yeakey, Lich Doan, Sarkis Ghazarian, Sergio Monteiro, and Shel Plotkin. Popular radio show hosts Shawn Casey O'Brien, Don Bustany, and Eben Rey are running with on the Committee ticket for staff seats on the local board.

Meanwhile, candidates without insider connections, largely newcomers to KPFK's election process, are left to slug their way through the morass of confusion, violations, and unannounced changes, in what is turning out to be something akin to a no rules wrestling match.

The elections are supposed to operate under the terms the new Pacifica Bylaws and the summaries provided to candidates in the 2007 Fair Campaign Provisions for Listener Candidates and for Programmers, Staff and Management, with the enforcement of the National Election Supervisor, Casey Peters, and Local Elections Supervisor, Liliana Sanchez.

The Violations

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