An Electoral Campaign: The PiT Story

[Associate Justice PiT]

Emperor PiT speaks before a large crowd in front of the Government Building in Memphis, Tennessee, awaiting his announcement concerning his electoral future

     After being elected to 11 terms with no real opposition, it looks like I have attracted opposition of the highest quality. I am running for re-election once more, and this time I am making a campaign thread.

     Obviously, I cannot talk about the things that I plan to do. I am the incumbent, and have had plenty of time to do them. What I can talk about is my qualities and achievements:
     1) I boast extensive knowledge of regional law, and have frequently used it to advise the Legislature in drafting bills. Just as an example, Clarence once proposed a right-to-work law. I pointed out that one already existed, and we were able to move on to the next item of business. In years past, it would have quietly passed and placed a redundancy in our legal code. This knowledge has been useful in expediting Legislative business.

     2) I have put significant work into documenting the laws of the region. When I took over as Emperor, the statute was only comprehensive through mid-2007, which a bunch of laws from 2009. I put many laws onto the Wiki and brought it up-to-date for a while. Granted, I have also received some help from my opponent, co-Speaker Adam Griffin.

     Still, I took on this task when it seemed hopeless, back when the laws from 2009 were not even numbered and uncatalogued bills were in the dozens. Many had voiced the need to do something, but I was the first to actually do something and get the ball rolling. I accomplished similar feats for the Imperial Legislature and regional elections articles in the Wiki, which respectively did not yet exist and was extremely out-of-date.

     3) I have also regularized the laws of the region, putting together previous slapdash collections of laws into statutes where they are easily found and culling other, useless initiatives. In my time, we have passed the Southern Symbols Omnibus Bill and the Imperial Registrar Protocol Bill, while repealing many irrelevant, old laws. The end result is a statute that is more easily understood and more easily used.

     4) I have worked to keep the Imperial Legislature active. I make a habit of reminding Legislators to run for office as elections near, and recruiting newbies to run to replace retiring Legislators. I post in the Legislature thread to remind everyone when I feel that too much time has passed without activity. In the past, I wrote many bills for the Legislature to discuss. Looking at our statute from 2011, most of the laws that carry "bill" in their names rather than "act" were my own creations.

     Fortunately, the Legislators today are good about maintaining a stream of bills to debate, but I have demonstrated that I can carry activity in the Legislature as needed. Just recently, however, I outlined a number of high-priority issues and offered a suggestion for the Legislature to handle all of them. In these trying times, I have shown that I still have what it takes to steer this region through its sea of tribulations.

     5) I have composed bills featuring highly technical language and carrying out specific needs for the region as need. Things like the III Act, the Regional Stimulus Distribution Bill, the Omnibus Maintenance Bill, and the Budget Maintenance Bill required significant amounts of work to get right, and I put in the work needed when it didn't seem like we would be able to get it done.
     I have said elsewhere that my opponent is a capable statesman and that, win or lose, I do not intend to run again after this. As such, you may wonder, why am I running? The truth is, politics has lost its interest for me. For the first time since 2004, I did not pay much attention to the IRL elections this year. I considered leaving the forum, but I remembered the work that I accomplished along with my allies in this region. I knew that I could continue doing good work, reforming the badly neglected system that was our regional government.

     With that said, this region has not seen a contested election for its executive post in over three years. I am looking forward to ending that drought with a gentlemanly contest of words and turnout machines, between two highly respected figures in this region's government. This is the election that our region needs, to stoke the fires of activity in our hallowed chambers.

     Thank you all, and good night.

Emperor PiT leaves the podium, to waves of applause emanating from the crowd

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Even the most partisan Laborites should acknowledge that you've been an absolutely fantastic emperor. You have my full support. We're getting you re-elected.

[CatoMinor]

2 more months! 2 more months! 2 more months!

[Adam Griffin]

I look forward to a substantive discussion over the next month. Who thought mid-terms could be exciting?

[Associate Justice PiT]

I look forward to a substantive discussion over the next month. Who thought mid-terms could be exciting?

     It's a midterm for the federal government, but we're looking at the real deal here in the Southland. Play ball!

[Donerail]

Even the most partisan Laborites should acknowledge that you've been an absolutely fantastic emperor. You have my full support. We're getting you re-elected.

[Pingvin]

Even the most partisan Laborites should acknowledge that you've been an absolutely fantastic emperor. You have my full support. We're getting you re-elected.

[tmthforu94]

Well, I am very disappointed to hear that you will not be running for re-election after this upcoming term. I vaguely remember the days when you weren't running things down there - they were dark days, days that the IDS will hopefully never see again. When I think of the IDS, I immediately think of you, as you've given SO much to your region, more than anyone else has ever given to theirs, IMHO.

It would be an absolute crying shame if you did not win your final re-election campaign. Hopefully IDS citizens see past the partisanship that is unfortunately being created down there and give you one last term.

Endorsed

[ZuWo]

You also have my endorsement, for what it's worth. The IDS without Emperor PiT - that's almost unthinkable to me.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Thanks for the support, everyone. I say to people I know: "life is short; take the opportunity to make it better for others". Reading your posts here makes me think that I've been succeeding at that online as well as in my life.

[CLARENCE 2015!]

The man who got me started... endorsed! We will get you reelected...

[Zanas]

Even the most partisan Laborites should acknowledge that you've been an absolutely fantastic emperor. You have my full support. We're getting you re-elected.

You don't get to tell us what to do !

Still : Endorsed... for 2nd preference. (if you follow me, you'll know I rarely give remaining preferences after the candidates I want to see elected...)

[Donerail]

Even the most partisan Laborites should acknowledge that you've been an absolutely fantastic emperor. You have my full support. We're getting you re-elected.

You don't get to tell us what to do !

"Should". We're merely kindly suggesting. In the strongest possible terms. With the vague yet still very possible threat of physical force behind them. Think of it as a recommendation, if a recommendation were mandatory.

[Zanas]

[I knew I should have put a after that "!" sigh...]

[Speed of Sound]

As wonderful a statesman as Griffin absolutely is, I firmly believe in rewarding success in office with another term, regardless of the possibilities of the opponent. It means little being shouted across the M-D line, but you have my endorsement, Mr. Emperor. Good luck to you both, it should be a wonderful campaign in which the South cannot lose either way.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Endorsed.


Two great candidates and it should one heck of an interesting race.

[CatoMinor]

Everyone, banner up.

[tmthforu94]

Everyone, banner up.

Wow, talk about a deja vu. That is eerily similar to my 2009 Senate campaign banner (which can be seen on my Wiki page).

[tmthforu94]

[Barnes]

As a non-biased connoisseur of signs, I find this one quite nice.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

While I think Griffin would be a solid governor and an active one, and dare I say, I'd like to see him in office some day, I certainly won't abandon you now. We've been through plenty together. You have The People's endorsement. Good luck.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Thanks for the banners!

While I think Griffin would be a solid governor and an active one, and dare I say, I'd like to see him in office some day, I certainly won't abandon you now. We've been through plenty together. You have The People's endorsement. Good luck.

     I humbly accept their endorsement. As those who are active in this region know, I have worked hard throughout my career to follow the will of The People and spread the word of Their beneficence.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I posted this in my opponent's thread. I am reposting it here, because I think that in light of our region's current explosive population growth, increasing the size of the Legislature is an idea well worth pursuing:

     I do agree that special elections work better with more people. They are not really conducive to getting new members elected, though fundamentally neither is appointment. Both systems depend on the people with power having the guts to try new, untested faces to reach their true utility. Historically, elections with large electorates have tended to enforce an old boy's club in Atlasia, where only well-known, well-respected candidates have a shot at winning. I acknowledge that that does not always have to be the case, and I posit that we can help ensure that that is not the case by creating more opportunity to advance.

     Along those lines, your comment about "We will continue to have the same number of offices" made me think. It occured to me that, as our region grows, we may want to increase the size of the Legislature further. In the November elections, we had 23 people vote. That's 23 people who have the potential for activity. Despite this, we only have seven regional offices. Some of those people hold federal offices as well, but many are just voters with no current office to hold.

     In order to keep people active for the long-term, you have to keep people interested. Getting them running and into office is an excellent way to do this. I think that we could easily increase the number of seats and find the candidates to have competitive elections. More people and more offices leads to a richer discourse both on the campaign trail and in the Legislature, and also positions the region to better sustain its current population growth.

[Donerail]

Perhaps if we do expand the Legislature, we could adopt almost a parliamentary system in which each Legislator has a specific role in the Cabinet while still being a Legislator. If there's a Legislator specifically interested in Agriculture, they could be the Ag Commissioner while still being a Legislator, with portfolios like that for each Legislator.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Perhaps if we do expand the Legislature, we could adopt almost a parliamentary system in which each Legislator has a specific role in the Cabinet while still being a Legislator. If there's a Legislator specifically interested in Agriculture, they could be the Ag Commissioner while still being a Legislator, with portfolios like that for each Legislator.

     I would expand on that idea by also allowing junior legislators to partner up with senior ones on a given portfolio, allowing them to learn more about the region and its laws under the tutelage of a long-time Atlasian. We have eight years worth of regional laws amounting to nearly 350 bills and initiatives voted upon. Familiarizing yourself with all of that is no trivial task.