New official NPC thread (August polls coming, campaigning open)

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

BTW SC has a DA trifecta. I think that might factor into your favorability ratings since we’d be able to get more done.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

I wonder that Labor should not have a majority in the Alaska HoC at least, if not the Senate as well? We were only one seat away from the majority before the Green collapse, and Lumine made clear that well over 80% of the Green MPs defected to Labor —it would be extraordinary if none of the Alaska Greens joined Labor after September 2020.

Lumine's numbers for nationwide stuff still had them there, so I'd assume they're in coalition with Labor, but not part of labor?

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Labor Party and Democratic Alliance have agreed to April NPC election Alliance

Leaders of the Labor Party and Democratic Alliance have agreed to the following conditions for the current cycle of NPC elections:

1.) Fusion tickets
- The Democratic Alliance and its candidate, Henry Edmondson, have agreed to withdraw from the Oklahoma Gubernatorial election. Edmondson will now join Labor nominee Hank Boomhauer on a Labor-DA ticket as its nominee for Lieutenant Governor.
- The Labor Party and its candidate, Judd Laurel, have agreed to withdraw from the Indiana Gubernatorial election. Laurel will now join Governor Peter Donnelly on a DA-Labor ticket as its nominee for Lieutenant Governor.

2.) Preferencing Arrangement
The Labor Party and Democratic Alliance have agreed to encourage our voters to second preference each other's candidates in applicable races during the March 2021 cycle.

This agreement will additionally be signed by Labor Party Chair Oregon Blue Dog and Democratic Alliance Chairman Weatherboy.

X ReaganClinton, Founder, Democratic Alliance

X Weatherboy, Chair, Democratic Alliance

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Clarifying that neither party is dropping from the legislative races in IN or OK, just gubernatorial

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

The Labor-DA alliance for March I guess (not April), in number 2 preferencing arrangement, I would like to understand if it's for all states in this cycle that the two parties second preference each other.

we will be encouraging our voters in all states to second preference the other party. Of course, we can not control how all voters make their preferences, but we will be making statements and gestures to get our voters to second preference each other.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Clarification: is campaigning now closed?

I think it closes tonight, with one big event on sunday allowed.

Another thing: while regular campaigning will end next Saturday, I will allow each party to post one event in the state of their choosing on Sunday, March 28th. A sort of official closing rally, it will be graded and weighed more heavily than a normal event: sort of a way for everyone to tell, without room for error, where each party's priorities lie.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Mr. GM, the Labor DA mega-rally in Oklahoma City Miami is our final act on the campaign trail and should be treated as a single event.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

I will note that it was not just RC’s rally, but myself and Southern Speaker tmth as well.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Nyman State Election:

Gubernatorial result:
Federalist win, Governor Spanier reelected

Incoming Legislature:
Federalist Council majority

Good Friday indeed!

By the way, may I ask the GM if this still applies?

Question: Is there a penalty for intentionally carpetbagging to a state that is in play?

If someone starts doing that in an obvious way to game the system, then yes. Ideally I wouldn't have to, but there will penalties involved if people try to take advantage.

(So people are encouraged to let me know if it happens)

Yeah, it's a good question since Ishan pretty clearly moved to the VI for this purpose imo

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Nyman State Election:

Gubernatorial result:
Federalist win, Governor Spanier reelected

Incoming Legislature:
Federalist Council majority

Good Friday indeed!

By the way, may I ask the GM if this still applies?

Question: Is there a penalty for intentionally carpetbagging to a state that is in play?

If someone starts doing that in an obvious way to game the system, then yes. Ideally I wouldn't have to, but there will penalties involved if people try to take advantage.

(So people are encouraged to let me know if it happens)

Yeah, it's a good question since Ishan pretty clearly moved to the VI for this purpose imo

I moved to the VI in December.

Ishan
Liberal
Virgin Islands

To populate the election maps

Sorry, thought you'd moved to another state a while back

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Labor in last place, but I'm not disputing the results for being skewed against Labor. This isn't Frémont and it's obviously not a state where Labor is popular. Parties need to pick their battles, especially if only a small handful of players are actually campaigning.

Labor was in single digits in Michigan last time, so it's not too surprising.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

what exactly are we supposed to do about the pensions thing, then? We haven't had a comptroller general for over a month now, so we can't ask them. This is a serious issue. This isn't about being partisan, or looking for a new line of attack, it's about actually having numbers straight, and if Fremont's numbers are similar to what you reported, then that's a really big issue that will just get worse with time.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

what exactly are we supposed to do about the pensions thing, then? We haven't had a comptroller general for over a month now, so we can't ask them. This is a serious issue. This isn't about being partisan, or looking for a new line of attack, it's about actually having numbers straight, and if Fremont's numbers are similar to what you reported, then that's a really big issue that will just get worse with time.

Indeed it would be, if the published figures were accurate. But no-one can show me any evidence that they are. When I approached Peanut last week asking for clarification, he was unable to provide me with a source for the published figures. Apparently a "private citizen" messaged him claiming Frémont was not paying for these pensions, but gave no sources except to link to some old fantasyland bills. (At least that is what I am told.) So there is no actual evidence backing this up: just the private opinion of an anonymous informant. Needless to say, this is a very frustrating position for me to be in: how am I supposed to address a potential budget shortfall if I can't actually see the numbers?

Frémont derives its HHS budget directly from the 21 IRL constituent state and territorial budgets: we look at what each state spends and add the numbers. I have been over the figures twice in the last week, and I was not able to establish that there is a significant deviation between what the states spend IRL and what we appropriated in the FY2021 budget. When you account for the significant share of state HHS expenditures that are funded with federal money, it is actually more likely that we are overfunding HHS compared to IRL.

But even if the GM had some reason to believe that there was a budget shortfall in FT, the situation in the other regions would be much worse. The South's education budget, for example, is only enough to match the expenditures of Virginia and Texas. The whole point of the Dispatch story was that the states were having to pick up the slack for the regional government; but even if those figures are correct (and they probably aren't), this is nothing compared to the shortfall in the South or Lincoln. If we have a funding gap, they have a funding chasm. So I am calling BS on this story.

Can you give me a source on that, too?

Anyway, I know who said informant is, and I think he knows what he's doing.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

I'm gonna ask for an extension of campaigning to next Friday (April 30). I've been busy as hell thanks to finals coming up and I'm sure a number of others have too, considering that most campaigning is being done by Scott and Poirot right now.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Also, if an extension were to be granted, wouldn't that take an act of all the regions? If so, then it's way too late for this to be considered.

yeah I didn't think about that. Withdrawing the request.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Also, on Sunday, are we having the one big event rule again or no?

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Hate to be that guy but I’m pretty sure Poirot just violated the campaign limit in MA.

Is there actually a limit?

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

And I have been very lax with upper limits on campaigning this go-around. I've considered several variations on Lumine's limits, but none apply for March. We'll see if April brings changes to that.

Never saw anything further on this, so I assume it's still "very lax".

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

And I have been very lax with upper limits on campaigning this go-around. I've considered several variations on Lumine's limits, but none apply for March. We'll see if April brings changes to that.

Never saw anything further on this, so I assume it's still "very lax".

Regardless, rules are rules. I would appreciate some GM clarification on this next round, because I'd much rather have no campaign limits or campaign limits that are consistently enforced as this current limbo state can result in unfair situations where the misinterpretation or lack of rule enforcement leads to advantages for one party (clarification is probably needed on what counts as an event and how ads/fliers play in).

Yeah, like do my logos constitute 1 event or like a dozen

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

only reason I'm checking the AFE board at this point is for these

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Glad to see Kansas heard our campaign against the regional expansionists! Kanzas je južni!

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Would you be willing to give out mid-month polling numbers to give us ideas on where things are headed?

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Hey, sorry, but I'm afraid polls are getting pushed back to tomorrow. They'll be very interesting for sure!

Presumably they will also include events done today?

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Having different systems for the states is pretty confusing. I personally think we should've stuck to what we were doing before

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

NJ campaigning closes in half an hour.

I was under the impression it would be midnight like everything else