LOL @ "Ruling party"

The idea that we have some "power" to "rule" or "govern" is so ridiculous there's not even any point in addressing it again, too many in this thread and elsewhere have already pointed out that we're an advisory/advocacy group and nothing more.

Also, we will absolutely be trying to influence the outcome of the election - but we'll be doing it through all the same means that every other player here has a right to wield. That is, endorsements of qualified candidates and open criticism against candidates that we don't believe are fit to serve. We've all worked waaaaaaaaayyyy too hard to get this far only to have a weak council replace us and not be able to pick up where we left off.

If we do our jobs right during the upcoming campaign season, we'll not only be replaced by individuals capable of continuing our work, we'll be replaced by individuals that will do an even better job at this than we have ourselves. I'll be the first to admit that we're not perfect and that there's many talented individuals throughout the community that deserve a chance to outshine our performance. They'll need to be equally fearless, prepared to work like dogs, and prepared for disappointment from CCP that will come in every flavor imaginable. Even during the best of times working with CCP can be stressful and none of us want anyone on the council that isn't capable of sticking out a term to the very end and handing it off to the next group that will do an even better job than CPM1.

The CSM has a long tradition of subsequent councils outshining those that come before them, building upon and iterating on the previous year's work and finding ways to improve communications with the community and to deepen their influence on CCP. I certainly hope that this tradition starts this spring with the CPM as well. I won't be running myself, but I'll be around as a resource to those that take our place, and make sure they have what they need to do a killer job.

All that to say, don't kid yourself, the CPM is not going to sit on the sideline with tape on our mouths and let a bunch of fools get elected and ruin what we've worked to build. In fact, there's many that have rightfully argued that the CPM-CCP relationship is still in its infancy, which makes electing a strong CPM1 all the more critical. It's not going to take any backroom handshakes or messing with electoral systems to do it though, the election will be more than fair. We simply have an obligation to speak our minds about who is and isn't fit to serve by the very fact that we take the future success of this institution seriously.