03.20.07
Secular Coalition Contest Winner
After all that has been written about Congressman Pete Stark’s coming out as a nontheist, the one thing that was left out was who actually won the Secular Coalition for America’s contest. Who nominated Pete Stark as the highest ranking, elected, nontheistic public official?
In fact, two people had nominated Stark, and since this wasn’t a race to see who could nominate someone the fastest, both had a chance for the $1,000 prize. A coin was flipped to determine the winner.
Mark Thomas of Mountain View, California came out the winner of that flip. Thomas is the assistant state director of American Atheists. (California’s state director is Dave Kong.)
The $100 runner-up (insert your own what-crappy-luck joke here) was Bryant Lister of Gresham, Oregon.
Congratulations to both for alerting us to the fact that there is someone like us in Congress!
Technorati Tags: atheist, atheism, Congressman, Pete Stark, nontheist, Secular Coalition for America, Mark Thomas, Mountain View, California, American Atheists, Dave Kong, Bryant Lister, Gresham, Oregon
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Bryant Lister said,
March 20, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Yeah, losing the coin toss could be called ‘crappy luck’, but I don’t believe in that either. I was just happy to see someone in our national government stand up and be recognized as a free thinker. A hundred check that I wasn’t expecting is better than nothing at all, so I do feel fortunate at having ‘won’ this contest, especially since it was a matter of researching information rather than sheer luck, like the lottery. Thanks
Karen said,
March 20, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Congratulations, Bryant! Good work.
Friendly Atheist » Australian Asks: Why Don’t Atheists Get Elected in America? said,
August 10, 2007 at 1:32 pm
[…] makes it sound like Stark nominated himself. He didn’t. He was separately nominated by two people and one of them won the contest (via a coin […]