It's the commies at it again.

I would suggest that given the the number of prospective candidates that were apparently eligible, the nominating committee had no choice but to put three candidates on the ballot. I suppose you could call that a conspiracy, in that the rules favor the incumbents as you say, by splitting the challenge vote between two candidates frequently leaving the incumbent with a win by plurality. Clearly the 'ins' could change that, as by requiring a run-off when no candidate receives a majority of the vote, but are not motivated to change rules that are self-serving.
Anyway, if DB conspired to split the challenger's vote tally via manipulation to get BO on the ballot, he screwed up. There was at least one other prospective candidate that would more likely have caused a division of the vote between the challengers that would be more favorable to the incumbent. Grapevine has it that DB was opposed to his candidacy...........how does your conspiracy theory gibe with that?

Abel