So You’re Going to GA-A Guide for the Unsuspecting UU Delegate in an Election Year
In one week the 2009 General Assembly: A Meeting of Congregations will convene in Salt Lake City. Around the country Unitarian Universalists are excited, getting ready to go and deciding what to pack. Those looking for wardrobe advice or a guide to fine dining-or on how the @$*&! can I get a drink in a Mormon town-will have to go elsewhere. This post is about something completely different-girding the loins to face a UUA Presidential Campaign in full roar.
It has been eight years since the last contested Presidential election. Only grizzled GA Junkies, long serving ministers, staff and perennial vendors have experienced this hoopla before. The vast majority of delegates-maybe even you-will be experiencing it for the first time.
I’m too poor to make it to Salt Lake this year. I have cast my absentee ballot already. But I was in Cleveland eight years ago when the Rev. William Sinkford defeated the Rev. Dianne Miller in a close and hard fought election. I remember it well and think I owe those of you who are going to experience the whole thing for the first time. So here goes.
First, a disclaimer: I am a supporter of the Rev. Peter Morales and have served on his Web Communications Team. This blog entry, however is entirely my own responsibility and was prepared completely without consultation with anyone involved in the campaign. Second, a pledge: While I might not be able to temper my enthusiasms in every instance, I will try to keep my remarks useful to everyone, including supporters of the Rev. Dr. Laurel Hallman and the many of you who are still uncommitted or ambivalent.
Of course the Presidential election will not be the only issue in front of the GA. The adoption of a Statement of Conscience on Peacemaking is still a matter of controversy between advocates of firm pacifism and those of a Just War approach with self-declared UU conservatives wringing their hands in the corner over any statement at all. The Commission on Appraisal’s proposed revision to the Principles and Purposes has quietly stirred up opposition in the ranks on account of clunky wordsmithing and a feeling in the Pews to leave well enough alone. The always high energy Youth Caucus is apt to be restive because their continental organization, Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU) was smothered in its sleep by the UUA Board with no replacement in sight. Bereft members of former UUA Affiliate organizations may likewise be more than a tad unhappy. The future of General Assemblies themselves may be in question as the current Board seems to be supportive of “reforming” or replacing GAs with governance-only meetings and regional assemblies. In the background the adoption of Policy Governance, the continuing drive to Congregational Polity Fundamentalism (my admittedly pejorative term), and the strains of the Budget caused by the economic crisis will all be on delegate’s minds. And many of these issues will influence and be influenced by the Presidential race as supporters of both candidates try to stake out turf.
But the election is going to grab your immediate attention as a delegate. You won’t be able to ignore it.
Anyone under the delusion that this is a solemn process like the election of a Pope or a respectful act of discernment is in for a big shock. The election of a UUA President is politics with all that entails. As you will discover upon arriving in Salt Lake.
If you fly in, you may be astonished to find your plane greeted by button wearing, literature toting, wildly enthusiastic volunteers from both campaigns. They will “greet you” and try do determine if you are yet committed to a candidate or bound by instructions from you home congregation. If your answer is “no” to both questions or you seem “soft” in any way in your support of a candidate you will soon be the center of a great deal of attention.
If you arrive by car, get off a Greyhound, or fling your bindle from the side-door Pullman car before leaping from the train, you will find similar greetings at your hotel and when you enter the Convention Center. In fact, for the next few days candidate volunteers will be at the top of every escalator, lurking outside plenary sessions, be all over the vendor area despite being asked repeatedly to confine themselves to each campaign’s lavishly appointed multi-media booths, and will swarm around evening social events. And each and every one of those volunteers really wants to talk to you!
You probably will find campaign materials and invitations to events left under the door of your hotel room, just in case you have somehow eluded other contact. You will undoubtedly be invited to at least one candidate reception in a hotel suite or well appointed meeting room. If you belong to a significant organization, whether or not it is still an official affiliate, you may find the candidates or leading surrogates at your organization’s annual meeting. Or you may be invited to special receptions and events targeting your interests.
If you are still truly uncommitted and if you are identified as potentially influential among like delegates, you may be astonished to receive direct attention from some folks with very big names in the UU universe. How flattering it is for the delegates from the UU Fellowship of East Podunk-Over-the-Hill to find they are found fascinating by a big name minister from a prestige congregation, someone whose name is regularly in the UUWorld, or whose book you have maybe read in an adult RE class. UU heavyweights will ache to have a meal with you and tell you all about the sterling qualities of their favored candidate.
Of course not all campaigning will be about how good the candidates are. No matter how many covenants are signed, an inevitable part of any election is tearing down the opposing candidate. In the genteel (relatively) world of UU politics this is usually preceded by effusive praise of the other candidate as a local minister followed by a long and detailed “but…” These negative messages may be targeted to you based on your identified interests and passions. In this campaign this has often broadly been that Morales lacks spiritual depth and uses “scare” tactics about growth on one hand, or the Hallman is an inward focused navel gazer and is unprepared for the demographic shifts remaking the American religious landscape on the other. Both criticisms can and are made with passion and sometimes delivered with sharp elbows, but are part and parcel of any campaign.
But inevitably in any campaign with passionate advocates some negative campaigning is likely to turn nasty either without the knowledge and approval of the candidates or sometimes with a wink-and-a-nod from their campaigns. Usually you will find nothing committed to paper. But you may hear alarming rumors about murky pasts, secret agendas, connections with “devil figures,” even, alas, sexual and relationship peccadilloes. No one can ever seem to track down the origin of these kinds of rumors, but they can flash across the Assembly at astonishing speed and be nearly impossible to refute without highlighting them even further. Beware of and discount any of these kinds of rumors.
The candidates will have a joint Presidential Forum at 7 PM Thursday night. It will undoubtedly last longer than the appointed hour and a quarter. That session will be available on streaming video for the folks back home or for delegates confined to their hotel rooms by Brigham Young’s revenge. CDs will be available in the blink of an eye. Both campaigns will take careful note of the questions and answers. Within hours each campaign will have out material tailored to the hot button issues identified in the appearance, highlighting their candidates' responses, and criticizing the answers of the opponent.
And then, believe it or not, the campaigns really roll into high gear. Each will be carefully counting and tracking delegates, noting when each finally expresses a preference or indicates a leaning. Leaners and the ever dwindling pool of uncommitted voters will each receive even more direct attention from the campaigns and their leading surrogates.
Balloting will finally take place from noon to 5:30 on Saturday in the Exhibit hall. Delegates will have to bring their signed ballot stubs to the polling place to relieve a ballot.
Then it’s nail biting time. Nobody has been able to poll this election, but all indications are that it will be a very tight race.
The results will be announced at what is billed as a special worship service in Celebration of the Candidates and the Election. It is being advertised as a worship service to keep celebrating by the victor’s supporters and wails of grief from the loser’s at a minimum. It will fail to accomplish that. The losing candidate will make a very gracious statement and pledge support of the winner. The winner will be effusive in praise of the looser and promise to rely on him/her for advise and support. And then it will, quite suddenly, be over.
Inevitably some of the loser’s folks will be bitter. Some will say that this is the “final straw” and will announce that they are leaving the UUA for good. A few will even mean it. One final piece of advice: Don’t let yourself be one of these soreheads. As the children of Knoxville reminded us after the shooting in their church, The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow.