mmur-@teleport.com

You may have noticed that big money is being spent trying to convince you

to vote for Proposition A. Mixing money with politics is the American way,

of course, and is quite legitimate as long as the big spenders maintain

some semblance of ethical conduct. However, in addition to good old

fashioned strong-arm politics, the Prop. A proponents are taking advantage

of the fact that "sex sells" and are also evidently engaging in activities

that are unethical, illegal or both.



A key player this campaign is San Francisco investment banker Thomas

Weisel, who has marshalled the resources of his own firm and the nominally

nonprofit USA Cycling Development Foundation (USACDF), of which he is

founder and President, to take control of USA Cycling. USA Cycing has been

effectively welded to USACDF by the fact that the USACDF Executive Officer,

Steve Johnson, is also the USA Cycling Chief Operating Officer and is

running the latter organization. Weisel's apparent goal is to consolidate

his control over USA Cycling by getting Proposition A adopted.



Steve Johnson in turn has reportedly directed the USA Cycling staff to

campaign for Prop. A, including regional representatives. Many of those

staff members have in turn contacted promoters, velodrome operators and

club leaders to solicit votes for Prop. A. In a legal deposition last week,

Steve Johnson admitted that he wrote the Staff Responses that appear in the

ballot materials. As I noted in earlier articles, those "responses" are

extremely political and contain mostly false statements. See the rebuttals

on http://home.pacbell.net/learnest for details.



In a Usenet discussion on rec.bicycles.racing, Richard Broom

<richard-@aol.com> wrote about an incident at Mt. Snow:

 Ok, I showed up at Mt. Snow registration and there was a woman at

registration in a super tight top, and tight black pants trying to get

riders to sign a proxy ballot for Prop. A. She was apparently holding the

clipboard right under her large breasts and was very "friendly" to those

who were signing. Apparently it was a pretty blatant "sex sells" approach.



But what I did see when I got there was a huge stack of "Vote for A"

flyers at the license check. (Everyone had to go through that to pick up

numbers.) There was also a proxy ballot there, placed just like sign in

for a stage race. God knows how many people signed without even asking

about it. And the officials at the desk were just smiling right along.....

I have a feeling that the JDCF, or whatever they are called now (the

junior foundation?) was behind it all, because when I got my number packet

the head guy was there pushing Prop A really hard. He got really pissed

when I told him I didn't think a private corporation should be on the USAC

board. He was really giving me the hard sell- even telling me that Prop B

would cost him his job.

Another rider who sent private email and asked not to be identified because

of possible repercussions wrote:

 I just wanted to inform you that I was at Super Week and there was a

person walking around lobbying for Proposition A. Even though she did not

have the text, she explained to everyone that "proposition A protects your

democratic rights while Proposition B takes it away". She then had the

racers sign a form that basically stated that their vote would be for

Proposition A IRREGARDLESS of how they voted on the ballot sent to their

home. I was later told by somebody that they thought she was an intern for

USA Cycling.

 She was pretty aggressive about getting signatures and license numbers so

I am sure that this story can be corroborated by many of the racers at

Super Week.

This is further evidence, if any is needed, that fraternizing with female

interns can get you into trouble. Note that this solicitation was well

before any ballot materials had been distributed, so those who signed her

nicely presented petition had no way of knowing what they were agreeing to.



A national level rider who also does not wish to be identified for the same

reason wrote:

 Les. I would like to confirm some misconduct. I was approached by someone

at Superweek and John Vandevelde at USPRO Crit and asked to sign for A.

Both times I was misled to believe that it was just a proposition to

benefit grass roots development. Vandevelde only said, "help keep the

foundation going." I was not told any other details and wasn't even

informed that signing basically constituted voting. If they can dupe me

into signing a proposition written by USAC, they can get anyone to sign.

Even earlier, at the Junior National Championships in Gainesville, Florida

in early August, uniformed race officials stationed in the rollout testing

area solicited signatures of junior riders as their bikes were being

tested. Former USCF President Mike Fraysse hear the officials telling

these young riders that if they didn't vote for Proposition A that funding

for junior programs would disappear. Most of them apparently signed and

were told that they didn't have to fill in their license numbers -- that

the officials would take care of that. Given that looking up license

numbers would require access to USA Cycling data, it appears that this

solicitation was an officially sponsored activity.



A parent who learned that his son had been intimidated into signing there

subsequently wrote to USA Cycling COO Steve Johnson, saying that he was

revoking his son's signature. He also demanded that USA Cycling identify

who had done the soliciting. Mr. Johnson reportedly replied that

"Unfortunately I do not know who solicited your son for his signature. As

you know, there are many enthusiastic supporters on both sides of the

referendum before the members this year and anyone of them could have

solicited your son for his proxy." Mr. Johnson was apparently unable to

figure out that whoever turns in the boy's proxy is affiliated with the

person who collected it.



Fortunately there is an antidote available for those who were conned by

race officials working for Prop. A or were talked into signing by the woman

in the skimpy attire -- see http://home.pacbell.net/learnest.



We believe that the solicitation of proxies at the Junior Nationals, Mt.

Snow and elsewhere, before ballot materials were made available, was

illegal. We plan to call to the attention of the Colorado Courts not only

these transgressions but others that I will discuss in future articles.



-Les Earnest <le-@cs.stanford.edu>