2560 Republic Election

The 2560 Legislative and Presidential elections were a major elections of the The Terran Republic

Overview

The Terran Republic was founded with the promise of an elected lower chamber, the General Assembly and a partially elected upper chamber, the Senate. In addition, the General Assembly would then elect the new President
The Republic had 20 member worlds at the start of 2550, each holding elections for its seats in the both chambers.

Parties

There were a large range of political parties standing the election, including several parties which were standing on just one world. The major political parties were:

• Gurava (GUR) -a left wing radical party with a strong pacifist and environmentalist message. Gurava preach that the Republic should be a place of learning and peace
• Social Democratic Party (SDP) -a centre-left party that proposes a “Big tent” left wing platform of state intervention and the construction of a welfare state. Approaching the 2550 election, the SDP began to take a more "moderate" stance
• Vishnu Elpis (VE) - a centrist party formed from the merger of the Valtinist party (VE) and the old Centrist Party. Has a socially liberal but fiscally conservative, hawkish agenda.
• Valiant Party (VT) -a somewhat conservative, pro military agenda, considered pro-corporate. The merger with Destiny moved the party away from the far-right
• Ravenheart (RHC) - a conservative Valtinist Party with a strong anti-AI platform. Expected to do well on Nova Terra but perhaps not elsewhere.
• Isolationist Party (ISP) -A conservative party that propose that the new Republic remain out of foreign policy entanglements. Favors the creation of a strong military
• Librarius (LBR) - a fusion of two moderate, progressive parties now running on a somewhat secularist ticket.

Justice and Peace also sought elected office in the Republic in 2560. Justice and Peace are a left wing Valtinist party with a very dovish and socially liberal platform

JOINT LISTS

Gurava formed a joint list with Librarius, based around a progressive, anti-corruption administration.
Valiant and the Isolationist Party formed a joint list based on their mutual interests such as a strong national defence.

Campaign Finance Rules

The Republic banned parties with no "vested interest" in the Republic from raising and donating money for political parties. The Emergency Delegates sent before the election set up a campaign finance board (RCFB) which was given broad oversight powers.
New tougher laws on campaign finance had been passed during the Noah Averssen administration which gave the Attorney General more powers to deal with campaign finance violations.
The regulations introduced in by the Isolationist Party made it illegal for parties, including corporations outside the Republic to donate to the campaign. It also set a limit of 4 billion adjusted dollars per campaign in the General Assembly and 2 billion at a planetary level.
In 2559, Vishnu Elpis introduced a new campaign finance law that would limit total spending during a ten year term to five billion adjusted dollars. This was voted through the General Assembly and then subject to a legal challenge on behalf of Valiant.
The legal challenge saw the bill referred to the Senate, which was then delayed by filibusters and procedural road-blocks to prevent the bill from becoming law in time for the 2560 election.

General Assembly

Each member world would be assigned seats in the General Assembly based around its population, with proportional representation then deciding how the seats would be allocated. A party required a minimum of 5% of the planet's vote to be considered for a seat, any votes to parties with fewer than 5% would then be discounted.
AS the General Assembly appeared the most powerful chamber and has the power to elect the President, most political pundits expected the General Assembly election to be the most competitive election.

Senate

As of 2530, all Senate seats in the Republic were democratically elected, though new member worlds retained the constitutional option to make one of them appointed

President

The President of the Republic is elected by the General Assembly, with a candidate requiring a majority of the votes in the assembly to be confirmed.
In 2560, President MyAnna Wolf announced that she would run for President on the Valiant party ticket.
Candidates

• Senator Dinah Woscek (Valiant) - the 55-year-old former Emergency Room doctor from New Carthage. She was a surprise choice for Valiant, coming from the oft-ignored moderate wing of the party.
• Senator Reiner Grumman (Gurava) -the 45-year-old former lobbyist, known for his ties to the Tranoan Empire. Backed by a groundswell of radical left wing support
• Herrick Knottman (SDP) -the 65-year-old former Foreign Secretary and Senator had been a lawyer and a lobbyist. Often an ally to the Moderate wing of the SDP, he was able to clinch support from the ascendant Progressive wing in 2560
• Governor Vaughn Kearey (Vishnu Elpis) -The 60-year-old former lecturer, preacher and the then Governor of New Corinth. Known for his charisma
• General Aston Groff (Islationist) -the 65-year-old Marine General and former Chief of Staff for the Republic Armed Forces. Groff made a surprise choice to run for President on the Isolationist Party ticket.
• Senator Voltaire Elazar (Ravenheart) -the XX-year-old former lawyer and lecturer has been one of the most conservative members of the senate. Based his campaign largely on "anti-AI" rhetoric
• Governor Galen Drayfuss (Librarius) -former Valtinist preacher and three term Governor of the small colony world of Fort Kurzon

The Campaign

The 2560 campaign was the most contentious and expensive election in Republic history. 70 billion adjusted dollars were spent and seven Presidential candidates battled it out for two months, with the final results the closest in Republican history.
Gurava's campaign had a strong, youthful energy to it with a young staff, legions of student volunteers and a ticket of two relative political outsiders. The selection of Mayor Henderson Loke (GUR) as running mate shocked a lot of people and at first Gurava had huge momentum, polling generally at or above 21%.
Valiant endured a very tough campaign, taking attack after attack from various sources. After 20 years in power and the hugely contreversial reign of President Xavier Inkerman , the party was often in the press. Rep Janos Mueller (VAL) was implicated in a bribery scandal for his time as a lobbyist and Senator Woscek (VAL) was also implicated in some shady financial deals. The party as a whole was also caught in a scandal of giving top lobbying firms direct access to their leadership.
First time candidate Aston Groff (ISO) a veteran marine and former Chief of Staff proved to be a natural on the campaign trail and he proved to be a big hit with moderates, conservatives and hawkish voters. His telegenic running mate, Rep Lucinda Maizeland (ISO) also proved to be a hit.
The Librarius campaign ran into trouble as their nominee, former Valtinist preacher Galen Drayfuss (LBR) made comments during the debates that appeared to be him welcoming the impact of religion on Republican politics. This had to be cleaned up after the fact and the confusion did not help a campaign that often appeared to be flagging.
Governor Vaughn Kearey (VE) proved to be a superb public speaker and the VE strategy of targetting frontier worlds appeared to be working. However, VE took a lot of attacks, especially from conservative aligned PACs. Some of these were even repudiated by Valiant and the Isolationist Party but many did damage and the fiscal conservative backers of the VE appeared to waver and lose faith.
Herrick Knottman (SDP) ran a careful, strategic campaign that took a while to get going but he managed a late surge and pushed towards 2nd place. Many pundits felt that Secretary Knottman would be a more palatable candidate to moderates than Reiner Grumman.

The Tranoan Emperor Incident

Senator Reiner Grumman (GUR) revealed that he had meet with the Tranoan Emperor, one to one. This was done without foreign office knowledge or involvement and whilst this was a historic moment, many felt that it showed that Senator Grumman had undue influence from a foreign power. This did serious damage to the Gurava campaigned and derailed their momentum somewhat.

The AI Issue

Senator Voltaire Elazar (RHC) pushed the "racist" angle about the dangers of AI and the potential for an AI attack, based on the events on Fort Carpenter. This saw Ravenheart get record donations and support but also draw condemnation from almost all other political parties
Some pundits felt that whilst Ravenheart did well in the GA, this hurt their viability for coalition building and may also have cost them Senate seats.

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

In April of 2560, the results were confirmed:

1. Gurava - 18%
2. Vishnu Elpis -16%
3. SDP - 15%
4. Isolationist -15%
5. Librarius -12%
6. Valiant -12%
7. Ravenheart -12%

This proved to be the closest General Assembly election in Republican history and with just a variance of 6% from highest to lowest party.

THE SENATE

The 2560 senate saw a number of new senate seats introduced by new member worlds, all of which were competitive electoral battlegrounds.
The final result of the election was:

1. Vishnu Elpis -10
2. Isolationist -10
3. Valiant -8
4. SDP -6
5. Gurava -6
6. Libararius -5
7. Independent -3
8. Tyr First -2
9. Frelsi Vanheim -2
10. Ravenheart -1

MAJOR RACES

• Everett Inkerman (VAL) won a senate seat on Earth. The son of the former President was elected in a landslide win after being named the "Heir" to Shen Rutten's conservative faction.
• Attorney General Kennedy Tiempe (VAL) was elected to the senate on Fort Verekker after a very close race.
• Tore "Pappi" Guttierez (SDP) won a senate seat in the Jovian belt, defeating Mads Boregon (VAL)
• Anna Kirschner (ISO) defeated Gurava's nominee to complete a clean sweep for the Isolationists on New Berlin
• Teshaun Takazawa (LBR) defeated Valiant's candidate on New Carthage to complete a Librarius clean sweep

GUBERNATIONAL RACES

• The Republic saw many gubernational elections, with the below considered to be the most prominent.
• Doral Penright (VAL) was elected as Governor of Earth
• Lysander Moreland (VAL) was elected as Governor of St Lawrence
• Roshaun Levar(Valiant) was re-elected Governor of the Jovian Belt
• Melissa Takahara (VE) is the new Lt-Governor of Mars
• Trayn Schlessinger(Isolationist) was re-elected Governor of New Berlin
• Michael Valane (Ravenheart) was elected as Governor of Nova Terra
• Navendra Barlow (VE) has been re-elected as Governor of Van Diemen's World
• Roswell Sutter (LAI) has been elected Governor of New Carthage
• Tyrell Winnant (RHC) was elected Governor of Avalon. This came as a shock as it had been revealed during the campaign that Winnant was a former member of Burning Path

Campaign Finance

The 2560 election, with a far larger electorate saw extravagant spending with a staggering 70 billion adjusted dollars spent across the various campaigns.
Major donors included: Allied West VENTRISS UDC Proteus KP LGD Gamma Monarch Sarissa Technology Ashpool Killian Industries Civil Service Union of the Republic (CSUR) Teachers Union of the Republic (TSUR) Valtinist Churches Major PAC Groups (as governed by the Republic Campaign Laws of 2502)
There were also a number of major private donors. The huge amount spent on campaign finance was hugely criticized by many politicians and calls for improved campaign finance laws were popular, though no major party pledged anything concrete.

Coalition Talks

After the General Assembly was formally sworn in, Gurava began attempting to bring together their coalition around Senator Grumman as President. However, the "progressive" bloc refused to agree to name Grumman as president with both the SDP and VE delegations stating he was too extreme and would be a target for investigation and impeachment by the right.
Due to the close balance of the GA, there was no way for a 3 party coalition to agree to a new government, making any grouping require four parties. There was also strong disagreement over who should lead. The Librarius delegation, led by Solomon Brahms, refused to back a VE led government of any kind. The SDP delegation, led by Herrick Knottman, refused to back any coalition that involved the Isolationist Party and VE's delegation, led by Governor Kearey, refused to back a coalition that included Valiant.
Retired Court of Appeals judge Nerinder was brought in to help break the deadlock after the talks dragged on into their second month. The various parties were forced to spell out their "red lines" and requirements. On the last day of May in 2560, just shy of two months from the result of the GA, an agreement had been made and Herrick Knottman would become the new President of the Republic.

The New Government

President Knottman was sworn in on the 10th of June 2560. He named his former Senate Chief of Staff Katie Flockhart as his Chief of Staff. She in turn named Lilith Bazely as her Communications Director. Veteran SDP staffer Bridie Wallender was named as Special Counsel and India Degan was named as Press Secretary.
The first Knottman cabinet was formed from its coalition partners in VE, Librarius and Gurava:
The Knottman Cabinet:

• Vice President - Harmony Meagher - SDP
• Treasury Secretary - Catherine Sondeheim - VE
• Attorney General -Bottley Harrow -LBR
• Foreign Secretary -Reiner Grumman -GUR
• Defence Secretary - Haymer Doherty - GUR
• Interior Secretary -Brace Mullholland -VE
• Intelligence Secretary -Kirian - IND
• Trade Secretary -Parminder Singh-Walsh -GUR
• Education Secretary - Kevintarr - LBR
• National Security Adviser - Lucius Corvo - IND
• Chief of Staff to the President - Katie Flockhart - SDP

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