A group of Naval Academy graduates is waging war against an unlikely foe - the leadership of the alumni association - over election rules that give members little choice in filling the top two posts.
A year after a bitter board election in which Naval Academy Alumni Association members were only allowed to ratify a nominating committee's recommendation for chairman, essentially keeping a challenger for that post off the ballot, a splinter group is threatening to sue the 48,000-member organization for violating, in its view, the basic principles of democracy that many of their comrades have died defending.
Association leaders counter that they're fed up with the complaints of a small cadre of dissidents who have long opposed the organization's transition from a small, membership-driven association into a robust nonprofit group with a powerhouse fundraising arm.
The combatants are no lightweights, but war heroes and corporate titans. Leading the association are retired Adm. Carlisle Trost, a past chief of naval operations, and Corbin McNeill, a former chief executive officer of the nation's largest nuclear utility. Their most formidable opponent has been retired Gen. Charles Krulak, former commandant of the Marine Corps and past CEO of MBNA Europe.
Both sides have swapped catty insults or alluded to Shakespeare, Judas' betrayal of Jesus and Thomas Jefferson's writings on tyranny as they've fought about the role of the alumni association and to what extent its election process should be opened up.
"This is a question about what kind of organization they want to have," said Marshall Ganz, who studies governance issues at a Harvard University center that focuses on nonprofit organizations. "Do they want an old club of guys that pick their successors, or a richer and more diverse group that's brought about by a system that makes them more open to challenge?"
Ganz added that such power struggles are not uncommon even in the Ivy League. Last year, several Dartmouth College alums won insurgent campaigns to unseat alumni association board members and defeated proposed bylaws changes that could have reduced their ability to be elected.
The governance debate among Annapolis graduates has been waged during a time of great discontent among some alumni who believe former standout quarterback Lamar S. Owens Jr. was unfairly kicked out of the academy. Owens was acquitted of rape last July but convicted of conduct unbecoming an officer for having sex in the dorm.
Graduates have also fretted over the softening of academy initiation rites, discipline deemed too light for the hijinks of varsity athletes, overzealous attempts to integrate women, the salaries of top alumni association employees and even the question of fundraising itself.
Some resent being asked to contribute, believing they paid their debt in blood and military service.
But the sharp rhetoric over the alumni association, which has largely taken place online on several blogs and e-mail groups, has surpassed that reserved for any other topic. With references to Jefferson's revolutionary calls for overthrowing the government and even a comparison of one player to Iago, the shadowy antagonist in Othello, critics and apologists have exchanged messages full of zingers about democracy and dictatorship.
"We raised our right hands and swore to uphold the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic," wrote a 1973 graduate participating in an e-mail group. "Yet the right of representation and of the vote - those very things that distinguish our republic from every other nation - is at peril."
In the alumni association, subgroups of graduates - divided mostly by region or class year - elect all but six of the 29 trustees to three-year terms. The board appoints two of the remaining trustees, usually individuals who diversify the group, and two seats are reserved for the past board chairman and the association's chief executive.
For the remaining two seats, the board chairman appoints a nominating committee made up mostly of other trustees to put chairman and vice chairman candidates on the ballot.
Last year, Krulak attempted to nominate retired Brig. Gen. Thomas Draude, a 1962 alumnus, Silver Star winner and CEO of the Marine Corps University Foundation, as a candidate for chairman.
Krulak said a member of the nominating committee urged him not to put up a challenger against Trost, the incumbent, but the Marine insisted, saying he believed that competition is good for any organization.
But to his surprise, only Trost's name was printed on the ballot. Because of what was later described on the alumni association's Web site as "inappropriate" communication between Trost and a nominating committee member, the former Navy head dissolved the panel. The second nominating committee - also appointed by Trost - listed only him as well.
Draude supporters soldiered on, however, and in the April 2006 general election for chairman of the board of trustees, he gained more than 40 percent of the vote as a write-in candidate.
In May, two 1964 graduates formed the Naval Academy Alumni Action Group - "NAAAG" - and threatened to sue the association for bylaws violations. Noting that they had consulted with an attorney, they asked for the ouster of Trost, McNeill and other officers, pointing to election irregularities last year and contending that they were serving in violation of the one three-year term allowed.
"The association's leadership does not communicate effectively with alumni, and we are in a rather direct conflict because of that," said Bill Tate, one of the organization's founders, who served Iowa Republican Rep. Jim Leach as chief of staff for 23 years after leaving the Navy. The alumni association has consulted with an attorney , posting a 17-page opinion on its Web site disputing the bylaws violation claims.
"I think a lot of these people are misinformed," said retired Capt. Bill Rentz, a 1955 graduate and an elected trustee based in Atlanta. "They're people that don't care about facts but like to pontificate."
Skid Heyworth, a 1970 graduate, board secretary and association spokesman, said putting forth single-slate candidates has been a tradition since the organization was formed in 1886. He said the board of trustees rightly vets those who are nominated to make sure they are qualified.
"Stature is important," he said. "You've got to have someone who can pick up the phone and call someone not only at the highest levels of the military but also in the private sector, if any issues ever arise."
Heyworth pointed to Trost, the top uniformed officer in the Navy from 1986 to 1990, and board vice chairman McNeill, former chairman and co-CEO of Exelon Corp., adding: "We are damn lucky to have them."
The association has further riled critics for proposing to make the chairman and vice chairman appointees. Heyworth said the association had consulted with boards at 13 major state universities, including Ohio State and Texas A&M;, and none had general elections for officer positions. The change is still under consideration.
"The problem is that the alumni are beginning to feel that their ability to really influence what is taking place at Alumni House is slowly but surely being degraded," Krulak said in an interview. "That is causing a great deal of angst."
Some alumni who are on the fence have said they plan to withhold donations until the matter is resolved. Heyworth said he's heard of people doing that, but the Naval Academy Foundation just brought in $34 million this fiscal year, 14 percent more than last year.
bradley.olson@baltsun.com