The quote was from "Mark Sykes, director of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz." Further quotes by him and others in the article to which I have hyperlinked in the post.

As I recall, the article also mentions similar re-enacted votes, where people tended to vote Pluto down.

One possible solution here is to call everything we find in space a "thingy". That way, there's no hurt feelings by people who name stuff.