April 2010 Senate Watch

[Hash]

I have a lot of respect for the party I've been a member of since the very beginning, but I've always been proud of the fact that we've been so willing to support various candidates and parties and not just hold the party line like the other parties do.

I honestly don't believe the "party's interests" should be the most important factor in considering how to vote....and if we were to become a party that demanded such complete loyalty, I would seriously consider becoming an independent voter.

We don't demand blind partisan loyalty, but one must wake up to the flipping fact that the party is dying. A semblance of basic structure and unity could help.

[Badger]

The more I review the numbers the more I realize what an uphill run Andrew had here. Building on the points Marokai and PiT made, Bullmoose won primarily on a strong cross-party coalition. How many other JCP candidates could've gained so much support--even mostly 3rd preference votes--from the Populares. Looking at the number of voters who put Bullmoose in their top 5 choices, he kicked everyone's ass---handedly.

Andrew's (highly regrettable) loss says more about his competition for 2 open seats rather than the supposed looming death of the DA.

[AndrewTX]

Well, it looks like I ended up being a giant fail bucket. Oh well, things happen. At this time, I believe I am going to retire from Atlasia for good. Its been fun, and I thank you all!

[Hash]

At this time, I believe I am going to retire from Atlasia for good.

NO!

Don't let your defeat by the Machines make you leave, whatever you do.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Well, it looks like I ended up being a giant fail bucket. Oh well, things happen. At this time, I believe I am going to retire from Atlasia for good. Its been fun, and I thank you all!

Don't be like Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, please

[President Mitt]

Well, it looks like I ended up being a giant fail bucket. Oh well, things happen. At this time, I believe I am going to retire from Atlasia for good. Its been fun, and I thank you all!

Not really. You probably had the votes, but the Machine made it hard for you to get much other support outside your party, and if all of the DA had supported you, you would have won. Not your fault.

There's still room in the NE Assembly though...

[Marokai Backbeat]

At this time, I believe I am going to retire from Atlasia for good.

NO!

Don't let your defeat by the Machines make you leave, whatever you do.

I'm trying to be polite for Purple State, but Andrew did not lose because of us. Stop trying to blame the JCP for your own party's failure to unify and organize in any meaningful way. You had the votes to get him, your party didn't vote for themselves, Andrew lost. End of story. We are not your scapegoat.

[AndrewTX]

At this time, I believe I am going to retire from Atlasia for good.

NO!

Don't let your defeat by the Machines make you leave, whatever you do.

I'm trying to be polite for Purple State, but Andrew did not lose because of us. Stop trying to blame the JCP for your own party's failure to unify and organize in any meaningful way. You had the votes to get him, your party didn't vote for themselves, Andrew lost. End of story. We are not your scapegoat.

Nobody is to blame for my loss. People can talk about Machines and everything. But I had support from the JCP, AFL-CIO, and other parties.. I just didnt have enough to get over the top. I was close, and thats all I could ask for.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

There's still room in the NE Assembly though...

I respectfully disagree

Northeast is now even a caricature of JCP domination in Pacific. At least JCP don't use proxy zombies.,

[Marokai Backbeat]

At this time, I believe I am going to retire from Atlasia for good.

NO!

Don't let your defeat by the Machines make you leave, whatever you do.

I'm trying to be polite for Purple State, but Andrew did not lose because of us. Stop trying to blame the JCP for your own party's failure to unify and organize in any meaningful way. You had the votes to get him, your party didn't vote for themselves, Andrew lost. End of story. We are not your scapegoat.

Nobody is to blame for my loss. People can talk about Machines and everything. But I had support from the JCP, AFL-CIO, and other parties.. I just didnt have enough to get over the top. I was close, and thats all I could ask for.

Yes, I really wish you could've gotten in, and I'm sorry you couldn't. There were actually alot of moderates running in this election, and I think that's the real story here. Moderates BK, BM, and Duke stole votes from the moderate party, and the DA suffered for it, that's all. You're a great guy, Andrew, and I know I've criticized you in the past, but I truly hope you stay in Atlasia.

I just don't want everyone to come out of the election blaming the JCP for anything.

[Badger]

At this time, I believe I am going to retire from Atlasia for good.

NO!

Don't let your defeat by the Machines make you leave, whatever you do.

I'm trying to be polite for Purple State, but Andrew did not lose because of us. Stop trying to blame the JCP for your own party's failure to unify and organize in any meaningful way. You had the votes to get him, your party didn't vote for themselves, Andrew lost. End of story. We are not your scapegoat.

Nobody is to blame for my loss. People can talk about Machines and everything. But I had support from the JCP, AFL-CIO, and other parties.. I just didnt have enough to get over the top. I was close, and thats all I could ask for.

Correct answer. I seriously hope you won't leave as it would be a decided loss for Atlasia.

You know, you recently mentioned Lt. Gov. is the only seat left in the NE you haven't served, and I hear there'll be an opening there soon....

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

It was not our intention to deprieve Andrew of a Senate seat, I wanted him to win. I wasn't expecting the DAers who we won to not second preference AndrewCT, we thought it would be a given that would happen. We didn't expect Franzl to be one of them either, or Afleitch to not vote. We also didn't expect the JCP to turn out so well. When we entered this cycle the AFL-CIO faced the problem of being the weakest party going into this election and the risk of us losing our seat to the Populares was extremely high. We played for keeps and took nothing for granted, especially Duke who deserves all the credit for making a potentially losing bid into the number one candidate in first preferences. Thats an incredible feat. The AFL-CIO was also extremely  unified with 87.5% of those who turned out voting for our guy and that other 12.5%  second preferenced Duke despite criticism of Duke's rino tendencies.

And fudge. The DA can't even elect one flipping at-large Senator in this system, even if our candidate was rather popular. If anybody in the DA wants me to resign, I'm offering my resignation on basis of this electoral failure.

There are only two coherent forces left in Atlasia, and the DA isn't one of them. The RPP appears to have rather amusingly taken centrist votes.

Run a moderate candidate, get a bunch of centrist votes, seems pretty reasonable to me.

Right. I feel like our campaign was extremely conservative and we targeted only those whom we felt we knew we could get the votes from. The additional votes I picked up were surprises to me, but I'll take them all the same . I'm proud of the outcome because, as I told other's privately, I was almost accepting that I would lose my seat to a Populare. This election was strange in that none of our models had the JCP pulling in 3 candidates, rather 2 JCP, 2 POP and 1 DA/RPP or 2 JCP, 1 POP, 1 RPP and 1 DA.

Andrew and I talked for a while the other night about each of our prospects and each of us assumed we'd be fighting for the last seat. This is really a bittersweet win, because I would have loved to see him in the Senate with me.

[Hash]

At this time, I believe I am going to retire from Atlasia for good.

NO!

Don't let your defeat by the Machines make you leave, whatever you do.

I'm trying to be polite for Purple State, but Andrew did not lose because of us. Stop trying to blame the JCP for your own party's failure to unify and organize in any meaningful way. You had the votes to get him, your party didn't vote for themselves, Andrew lost. End of story. We are not your scapegoat.

I'm not laying blame on the JCP and I apologize if it came out as such. Yet, it's quite undeniable that there is a JCP machine just like there is a POP machine. Furthermore, I believe that I have learned the lessons of this election in that I fully intend to build a stronger and more united DA that is not a PMDB but rather a party which wins elections. I don't need to be told what to do with my party by nobody.

[Purple State]

I think the better takeaway from Andrew's loss is the outpouring of respect from members of every party after the fact. The DA shouldn't be built on our wins from election to election, but on the universally accepted integrity and prowess of our members.

A string of tough defeats is never fun, but it's not a crisis and the DA is not irreparable. We will come back stronger and more prepared for the next election.

EDIT: And yeah, don't leave Andrew. The love-fest here should be evidence enough that we want you here.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

At this time, I believe I am going to retire from Atlasia for good. Its been fun, and I thank you all!

NO.  The last thing Atlasia wants is for you to leave.

[tmthforu94]

At this time, I believe I am going to retire from Atlasia for good. Its been fun, and I thank you all!

NO.  The last thing Atlasia wants is for you to leave.

If you all would have voted for him, maybe he would have stayed.

[RIP Robert H Bork]

Well, it looks like I ended up being a giant fail bucket. Oh well, things happen. At this time, I believe I am going to retire from Atlasia for good. Its been fun, and I thank you all!

NO!

[President Mitt]

At this time, I believe I am going to retire from Atlasia for good. Its been fun, and I thank you all!

NO.  The last thing Atlasia wants is for you to leave.

If you all would have voted for him, maybe he would have stayed.

Ben is perfectly within his rights to vote for another candidate if he finds them the better candidate. Don't be blaming anybody's departure on Ben or Franzl or Dan because they didn't vote for him. One of the chief positives of the DA was supposed to be it's lack of partisan button mashers.

AndrewCT lost. You guys have a right to be upset. Tossing around blame most assuredly isn't going to remedy your Party's troubles.

[tmthforu94]

At this time, I believe I am going to retire from Atlasia for good. Its been fun, and I thank you all!

NO.  The last thing Atlasia wants is for you to leave.

If you all would have voted for him, maybe he would have stayed.

Ben is perfectly within his rights to vote for another candidate if he finds them the better candidate. Don't be blaming anybody's departure on Ben or Franzl or Dan because they didn't vote for him. One of the chief positives of the DA was supposed to be it's lack of partisan button mashers.

AndrewCT lost. You guys have a right to be upset. Tossing around blame most assuredly isn't going to remedy your Party's troubles.

Uhm, okay. I never said he wasn't in his rights; Ben can do wahtever he wants. I'm just saying that if he really wanted AndrewCT to be around, he should have considered voting for him.

[Јas]

     Especially when one considers the number of third preferences he received from members of the Populares. While being a JCPer is a great bonus to a candidate, I think it would be more accurate to say his commanding performance was despite his party than because of it.

While that would be nice, but I'd don't think the actual results would support such a contention.

Bullmoose voters (I think I'm missing one, but anyway...):
J.J., Antonio, Mr. Moderate, BRTD, Sam Spade, CultureKing, MaxQue, Alcon, Peter, Meeker, Badger, bullmoose
[JCP voters in green]

How many of the JCP votes would have given bullmoose a #1 or #2 preference in the absence of the JCP label? How many their #3?

Presuming the JCP voters would have stuck with their official candidates in #1 and #2 on their ballots (and that the JCP wouldn't have run another candidate), bullmoose would have needed to monopolise the JCP #3 preferences from the above voters (and indeed the other JCP voters) to be competitive.

We can't know the numbers for sure, but it looks a lot like bullmoose would have been fighting a very tough battle to get elected without the backing of the JCP. (I'd suggest he would have been in a battle with Mechaman for 6th, but as I say we can't really know for sure.)

     Without doubt, being a JCPer greatly increased his odds of winning. My point was that being a JCPer made his large number of higher preferences more difficult to achieve, due to the significant proportion of Atlasians who hold negative opinions of the JCP.

It's possible, but I think that there's evidence from previous elections to suggest that good candidates can overcome the JCP label with those voters disinclined towards the party anyway. I doubt that your proposition is accurate (which voters would have given bullmoose #1s in the absence of JCP membership that didn't otherwise?), but obviously it's difficult to establish anything with certainty in this regard.

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

Bullmoose and Andrew should both have been elected. The only one who shouldn't be there is Libertas.

Yeah, how dare I win a seat in an election fair and square.


Welcome to my ignore list.

[Badger]

     Especially when one considers the number of third preferences he received from members of the Populares. While being a JCPer is a great bonus to a candidate, I think it would be more accurate to say his commanding performance was despite his party than because of it.

While that would be nice, but I'd don't think the actual results would support such a contention.

Bullmoose voters (I think I'm missing one, but anyway...):
J.J., Antonio, Mr. Moderate, BRTD, Sam Spade, CultureKing, MaxQue, Alcon, Peter, Meeker, Badger, bullmoose
[JCP voters in green]

How many of the JCP votes would have given bullmoose a #1 or #2 preference in the absence of the JCP label? How many their #3?

Presuming the JCP voters would have stuck with their official candidates in #1 and #2 on their ballots (and that the JCP wouldn't have run another candidate), bullmoose would have needed to monopolise the JCP #3 preferences from the above voters (and indeed the other JCP voters) to be competitive.

We can't know the numbers for sure, but it looks a lot like bullmoose would have been fighting a very tough battle to get elected without the backing of the JCP. (I'd suggest he would have been in a battle with Mechaman for 6th, but as I say we can't really know for sure.)

     Without doubt, being a JCPer greatly increased his odds of winning. My point was that being a JCPer made his large number of higher preferences more difficult to achieve, due to the significant proportion of Atlasians who hold negative opinions of the JCP.

It's possible, but I think that there's evidence from previous elections to suggest that good candidates can overcome the JCP label with those voters disinclined towards the party anyway. I doubt that your proposition is accurate (which voters would have given bullmoose #1s in the absence of JCP membership that didn't otherwise?), but obviously it's difficult to establish anything with certainty in this regard.

I suspect Bullmoose would've.