ELECTION APPEALS MASTER
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IN RE: FRED ZUCKERMAN and SANDY POPE,
Protestor.
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11 Elec. App. 60 (KC)
ORDER
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This matter is an appeal from the Election Supervisor's decision 2011 ESD 336 issued on September 30, 2011. A hearing was requested by Julian Gonzalez, Esq. on behalf of Sandy Pope.
A hearing was held before me on October 7, 2011. The following persons were heard by way of teleconference: Jeffrey J. Ellison, Esq., for the Election Supervisor's Office; Julian Gonzalez on behalf of the Sandy Pope Campaign; David J. Hoffa, Esq. on behalf of the Hoffa-Hall 2011 Campaign and Geoffrey Piller, Esq. on behalf of Teamsters Joint Council 7.
Sandy Pope, the protester and an independent candidate for General President objects to a portion of an article authored by Joint Council 7 President Rome Aloise in the union newsletter. She asserts that the article re-channeled Hoffa campaign rhetoric, in violation of the Election Rules. The Election Supervisor concluded that the text in question was not an impermissible express of support for the Hoffa-Hall slate in a union financed publication, and denied the protests.
Reduced to its basic complaint, the protester insists that a reference to a purported $14 million cost for conduct of the election, repeats the same figure that appeared in a Hoffa-Hall campaign flyer distributed at the convention. The Election Supervisor concluded that this bare reference does not constitute adoption of a Hoffa-Hall campaign "them" and therefore did not operate to convert "Aloise's neutral language to a campaign polemic." Appeal Statement of Jeffrey J. Ellison, at 3.
This is indisputably clear on this record. Accordingly, the decision of the Election Supervisor is affirmed.SO ORDERED:
__s/Kenneth Conboy_____________
Kenneth Conboy
Election Appeals Master
Dated: October 10, 2011