THE 2015 ELECTION
There are two Executive Board seats to be filled this
year, and two candidates on the ballot, Randy Bauer and Anjelina Belakovskaia.
Another candidate, Boyd Reed, is campaigning for write-in votes.
I recommend voting for Randy Bauer and writing in Boyd Reed.
Following is a statement by each candidate, as posted on the USCF Issues Forum:
Bauer and Belakovskaia will also each have several statements in Chess Life. As a write-in candidate, Reed is not entitled to a statement in the magazine. Reed entered the race after there was surprisingly no contest among candidates on the ballot, because current Board member Chuck Unruh, who was expected to run, failed to submit sufficient valid signatures.
I served on the Executive Board with Bauer for six years, and have directed many tournaments with Reed, and recommend both highly.
As the above statements display, all three candidates have substantial qualifications. However, I cannot vote for Belakovskaia, even though I signed her nominating petition, because I have since become aware of a serious of emails written in early 2014 among members of the USCF Top Players Committee and some high rated players and USCF leaders.
These emails include various unfounded accusations by Belakovskaia against USCF and the most productive sponsor in USCF history, the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. She even goes so far as to accuse this sponsor of "cheating," because she did not receive a wildcard invitation for the US Women's Championship. She misuses a discussion group designed to improve USCF invitational procedures to argue her own personal case, and her argument is not even a strong one.