I think you have to remember the mods are not a monolithic group. Some like constructive criticism, will listen to it and amend their moderation practices accordingly - some detest it, and want no-one interfering in how they run their forums and will get very defensive over anyone commenting on their practices (for an example of that, consider the responses to the criticisms of megathreading).
And while there are mod guidelines and FT rules etc, not all mods follow them and there is generally little penalty for those mods that don't. So while the rules might say something, one mod might/will interpret it differently than another mod. To bring that back on topic, I'd be wary of PMing people I hadn't had personal contact with about TB elections, because it could be viewed as spamming by some - I think as a former mod, I'd view it as spam if a member reported it to me as such, because they saw it as such.... other mods' views will differ!