The Chairman of the EC has nothing to do with it, the absolute priority law must be followed for Preferreds. If it's not, the Preferred holders including TPS can object and derail the whole thing. The Preferred stock has to be getting a decent enough conversion make it worth it for them. There are also other members of the EC now who own preferreds.
Willingham knows if he screws the preferred stock, there will be major objections filed and it could derail the whole thing. We'll see what happens, but unless commons are getting more than a few bucks per share, I think Preferreds are the better bet.
That being said, the best strategy is to have both commons and preferreds.
