Holiday is one and a half weeks away.
"Well….shit." Jeanie looks you over as she pushes herself out of the bed. Shaking her head. Her words fairly accurately encapsulate your own thoughts at present. She walks over to you, looking into the foul smelling mug you are holding. "That a hangover cure, boss?" You nod, offering her some as you mentally adapt to the fact you just slept with your PA.
"Take it. It'll wipe the headache out." You go to pull some clothes on. You've both got an early flight back to new york, and as you pull on your pants, shirt, and suit vest, if you are going to deal with this, you might as well look good. Jeanie turns around, wearing a shirt and not much else, as she leans against the dresser you'd prepared your foul-tasting sludge on.
"So…..shit. I'm...uh. Sorry about that. I figured I'd handle my alcohol better and we wouldn't wind up like…." She gestured to you, as you finished dressing yourself, and then to herself, in her state of relative undress. You tactfully avert your eyes and finish lacing your shoes.
"We should….get dressed. We can talk about this some other time." You offer, and she practically jumps at the offer, grabbing her key, and skirt, and rushing into her own room, and soon, she's dressed up properly, you are both packed, and ready to go. She seems a bit….awkward? Probably didn't have enough time to do her make up. There seems to be….more of it than usual? You brush it off. You don't get the point. She looks fine enough without it.
You give her a pat on the back. "Relax, you look fine. Now let's get back into the swing of things, yeah? We can talk about….last night, when we get to
Euskadi." She takes a moment to process just what
Euskadi is but hey, she's not a basque speaker, so that's fair enough. She nods as you load up the taxi.
"Harry! What the fuck's going on?" The office is a bit….well, to be frank it's a bit more chaotic than you are used to. Shit is everywhere. Looks like Harry and the team had a bit of an office party. There are still several dozen 'PATAKI 2016' Banners hanging from the ceiling, and someone appears to have attached Pataki balloons to various chairs, some are even still fully inflated, bobbing back and forth.
A slightly hungover looking Harry enten drags himself in front of you. "Oh, hey boss, hey jean. Can you keep it down? Celebrations got a bit….overdone.Nothing broke, though. So 's'all good." He staggers off back to his office. Christ, you've never seen Harry that hung over, not even after he had to start buying into your poker games with shots of whiskey.
Jeanie hangs very close to you as you make your way into your office. She breaks off just as you get in to get your morning coffee, as you grab a bottle of 'wake up' alcohol mix you keep sitting in your bar fridge at all times, setting up two shots. One for you, one for Jeanie. Fucking airline flights always make your head hurt. Hopefully this would help.
Jeanie comes in with your coffee. It tastes fucking
wretched. It's hot, though. Hot and full of caffeine. You both take your shots, and have a quick talk about…..how to behave at work. Neither of you remember much, but you don't want rumors spreading around the goddamn office.
Quick talk done, you get comfortable in your chair, pouring some whiskey, and mulling over how to tell your parents about this. You were kind of afraid that they'd assume you'd gotten married in secret, god knows they did that every time you brought a girlfriend home when you were at school or university. Hopefully Jeanie doesn't mind too much. Your parents can be…..
overwhelming.
You open up your laptop, and the usual emails are filling your inbox, notably there is a huge influx of volunteer emails, well-wishers and the like. Unfortunately, due to George being in Ohio, with a possible stop-over in neighbouring states, he can't swing in for any
immediate post-debate interviews, though you do have some ideas for George and the media for the latter half of this week. There is always George's potential essay fight with Rubio over the future of American foreign policy, and after your strong performance you can lobby just about any paper. Maybe it would be a good idea to get George to write some editorials this week? (1 free editorial action. Any more will take away Pataki actions)
[] New American Century vs. Marco Rubio. This could be an important test for just how well George can do articulating points. They want the response
soon to boot. You may miss out on this if you don't act now.
[] One of the big papers. You know what people read? The WSJ, The Manchester Union-Leader, The Washington Post, and others. Surely they'll take George! At least one of them, at least.
[] Online. Might as well turn to new media! Something like the Daily Beast, or the Hill, or even the Examiner. All have strong followings. All would be good options!
Of course, after your strongly worded editorial, you've gotten some requests of your own. Even though you've only got half a week, you are pumped after that debate performance, and are eager to finish up with a strong editorial piece. (1 free editorial action. Any more will take away Campaign actions)
[] Back to the LVRJ! Of course they'd be happy to host you a second time. Why wouldn't they? You gave them their best-selling issue in ages.
[] The Economist. Now
there is something you didn't expect. The economist is a fairly highbrow magazine, with a strongly intellectual reader base. It's got a classically liberal tilt, and might be a good spot to make a more….economics-focused pitch.
[] Someone else? You've got a heap of requests for an editorial, might as well go for
one of them (Subject to GM approval. You cannot overlap with George Pataki.)
Sending your first batch of responses, you finally get to Harry's polls. Of course, he doesn't have
national or state results, but those aren't what you are interested in right now. You are interested in who
won the debate, and you grin the second you see the results.
|
Poll source
|
Sample
size
|
Question
|
Date(s)
administered
|
Jeb
Bush
|
Ben
Carson
|
Chris
Christie
|
Ted
Cruz
|
Mike
Huckabee
|
John
Kasich
|
George
Pataki
|
Rand
Paul
|
Marco
Rubio
|
Donald
Trump
|
|
Private (Phone)
|
865
|
Who do you think won the Republican Primary debate on August 6th?
|
August 6th, 2015
|
0%
|
2%
|
15%
|
24%
|
0%
|
5%
|
19%
|
0%
|
30%
|
10%
|
Not bad! A solid third, based on responses, four percentage points ahead of Christie, and only five behind Cruz. Given Pataki's fucking up the gun control issue, that's way better than you expected. Trump being so far low down is pretty gratifying as well, though the fact he is within 10 points of you despite not
doing much of anything on that stage is worrying. One good performance from him could put him on top.
CURRENT DATE: August 7th, 2015
NEXT DEBATE: September 16th, 2015
NEXT PRIMARY: Iowa, February 1st, 2016
Campaign Funds.
Campaign Warchest: 693k
Last Week Passive Fundraising: 38k
Ongoing Costs: 34k
PBP PAC Warchest: 1.45m
AABA PAC Warchest: 1.65m
CAMPAIGN ACTIONS:
This stuff is your bread and butter. Organised by you, actions conducted by the Campaign machine are things you will have most direct influence over. Pick Two (One locked).
[] Ads of the future! Well, after that twitter feud, you are starting to see the point behind all this! Internet advertising is cheap, and combine that by going whole hog on twitter, you might just get this campaign into the double digits. (Cost: 2k Chance of Success: 65% Result: Minor Momentum boost, chance of twitter war)
[] We'll advertise live! Jeb! Is already purchasing TV spots in Iowa. It doesn't seem to be doing him a world of good, but that's partly because he isn't doing it right. You know you can do better! Of course, it might be a good idea to expand the advertising infrastructure in the HQ before you set about doing that. (Cost: Varies. Min: 60k (Production costs) 80k (Running costs, IA) Chance of Success: Varies by topic (In theme topics receive a bonus) Result: Huge Momentum boost/debuff. Specify state/topic/target candidate)
[] Bigger, shinier ads. Well, now you are packing cash, you can look into seriously pumping out ads. In proper Newspapers, like the Des Moine register, and the Manchester Union-Leader! It'll cost way more, but it'll also do way more. (Cost: Varies. Min: 5k (Production costs) 38k (Running costs, NH.) Chance of Success: 75% Result: Large Momentum/Name recognition boost. Specify state.)
[X] How to Ad for dummies. Your advertising department is kind of crap. Hardly surprising, given your background is Congress campaigns, where newspaper spots are the mainstay, not state-wide contests where TV ads rule. Expanding things so you can properly churn them out, at higher quality, would be a good (if expensive) investment. (Cost: 30k per turn until complete. 12k once complete. Time: 2 turns. Result: Ad attribute raised to 2.)
[] Stealing endorsements. You can (hopefully) start to poach more of Scott Walker and Jeb! Bush's endorsers now that they are both clearly falling apart. You might even be able to swipe some senators/congressmen!(Cost: 15k Chance of Success 55% (Jeb) 80% (Walker) Result: Endorsers stolen from Walker/Bush.
You must specify your target.)
[] Money makes the (political) world go round! You are cashed up, and can now largely support yourself, New York might be tapped for a little bit, but you can always head to California, Texas and even Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Michigan for cash! Getting some more big donations would be a huge boon, but you shouldn't neglect the small folk either. (Cost: Free. Chance of Success: 50% Result: +Unknown amount of K. Possible major fundraiser contacted. Specify State)
[] Hunt for endorsers. With Jeb! On the decline already, and Walker's campaign in bloody, bitter tatters right out of the gate, it would be a good idea to go hunt for more endorsers. It can't hurt! (Cost: 10k Chance of Success: 55% Result: Endorsers found. +Momentum in State.
Specify state for search.)
[] Fuck 'em. You can always start to pump out some negative advertising. It would be foolish to rely on your SuperPAC to do it for you, and you should probably at least make sure the campaign staff are on board with making them. (Cost: 12k. Chance of Success: 70% Result: [CANDIDATE] Momentum lowered, potentially into negative.
Specify state and Candidate. Price/Chance of success will be adjusted by state. Choose method of attack. (Experience/Immigration/Religion, etc.)
[] Nate's post-mortem. You are meeting Nate for cards on Friday night, you might as well ask him to put together some stuff so you can figure out what to do about the debate. He's a smart guy. For a democrat. (Cost: Free. Chance of Success: 40% Result: Nate
may give you a spreadsheet at your weekly card game.)
RESEARCH TEAM
Well, Harry is back to his old, pre-walker self. Which is good to see. He's been accosting you with polls and the like about how Walker is in deep, deep trouble, and wants to do a full, debate post-mortem.
Pick One. (One locked)
[] Keeping tabs. All considered, this was nearly a fucking catastrophe. Nearly being the operative word here. It wasn't, not quite. Still, now you've got the basic outline of Walker's campaign, and sent him into paranoia mode, it might be a good idea to search out everyone else. (Cost: 5k Chance of Success: 65% Time to Completion: Two Weeks Result: Information on a specific campaign gained. Specify Candidate.) BANNED BY HARRY UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
[] Harry's debate post-mortem. While you can bother Nate about it over poker, having his (ex) employee give his own take would probably be a good idea as well. (Cost: 5k. Chance of Success: Automatic. Result: Harry will give you an in-depth post mortem of each candidate, including who poses a threat, and who doesn't.
FREE ACTION)
[] The rise of national polling. With your office expanded, Harry can now firmly grow the research department, and argues that if the A-list plan is going to be a success, and if you want good Oppo-research, that expanding into the new office with National Polling is a good idea. (Cost: 100k. Chance of Success: 75% Time to Completion: Three weeks Result: Accurate National polling established. -45k running costs. This takes up two research actions)
[] Find an office leader. You could get Harry to do this, he might have an idea or something similar. Hopefully, at least. (Cost: 30k Chance of Success: 90% Result: A new organizer for the A-list is found)
[X] Expanding surveillance. Harry is apoplectic about last week's fuck up. Splitting his time screaming at his interns, and apologising to you. which makes you feel a little better, but has also made you realise, of course he's fucking up. You need some proper spying infrastructure! To get this kind of shit off the ground, though, would bite into your cash reserves a bit. It'd also take time. (Cost: 18k per turn until completed. 6k once completed. Time: 3 turns. Result: Research stat raised to 3. Harry will have an easier time coordinating spying and subterfuge)
The A-List
Harry is currently organising the A-list out of his own office, when he isn't busy yelling at interns, or trying to find ways to spin the results of both debates. Obviously, he doesn't
want to be in charge of this office, as he can't keep his attention divided forever. He can't really do anything with the new office with how busy he is for now. So....even if you
did think he could handle this job (he could) he doesn't have the time, making finding a replacement top-priority. (-1 Research action until a new office leader can be found.)
PATAKI ACTIONS
Of course, as his chief advisor, you can naturally give Pataki his schedule for the week. You've noticed he's a bit....different after the debate. Much more confident in his speaking ability, for one. Hopefully he can keep that going up and down the campaign trail. You could certainly use the help when he's out barnstorming! Especially given he'll likely have to campaign under fire from opponents. Speaking of, you should probably start formulating fire back lines.... (Pick 2)
[] Barnstorm in Ohio. George is still in Ohio for the rest of the week, so you might as well use this time to build up some base of support. After all, if you knock out John, but don't win his endorsement, you could have an uphill battle in a few months (Cost: 30k Chance of Success: Unknown (Moderate) Result: Increased name recognition in Ohio, Momentum in Ohio raised)
[] Barnstorm in Indiana.George is waiting to stick around Ohio for the rest of the week, both so he and Libby can see the sights, and so her ankle isn't too pressured. Which is fine, because you don't want her constant health issues causing a catastrophe. You could send him to Indiana, you suppose. It's a late game state, but could be important. Especially if Trump keeps going strong, long enough for the late states to
matter. (Cost: 38k. Chance of Success: Unknown (Moderate) Result: Increased name recognition in Indiana, Momentum in Indiana raised)
[] Barnstorm in Pennsylvania.George is waiting to stick around Ohio for the rest of the week, both so he and Libby can see the sights, and so her ankle isn't too pressured. Which is fine, because you don't want her constant health issues causing a catastrophe. You could send him to Pennsylvania. It's a white, working class state where your message might find fertile ground. As might
Trump's. So it is a good idea to nip
that in the bud. (Cost: 36k Chance of Success: Unknown (Moderate) Result: Increased name recognition in Pennsylvania, Momentum in Pennsylvania raised)
[] Barnstorm in Michigan.George is waiting to stick around Ohio for the rest of the week, both so he and Libby can see the sights, and so her ankle isn't too pressured. Which is fine, because you don't want her constant health issues causing a catastrophe. You could send him to Michigan, where he can make inroads with both disaffected factory workers, and hopefully the more affluent suburbs! (Cost: 33k Chance of Success: Unknown (Moderate) Result: Increased name recognition in Michigan, Momentum in Michigan raised)
[] Barnstorm in Kentucky.George is waiting to stick around Ohio for the rest of the week, both so he and Libby can see the sights, and so her ankle isn't too pressured. Which is fine, because you don't want her constant health issues causing a catastrophe. You could send him to Kentucky, where he can try and cut into Rand's base in the more urbanised north, where most of the population is. (Cost: 25k Chance of Success: Unknown (Moderate) Result: Increased name recognition in Kentucky, Momentum in Kentucky raised)
[] Barnstorm in West Virginia.George is waiting to stick around Ohio for the rest of the week, both so he and Libby can see the sights, and so her ankle isn't too pressured. Which is fine, because you don't want her constant health issues causing a catastrophe. You could send him to West Virginia, not a pressing race, but it's important to damage control Trump, and he is
very strong here. (Cost: 25k Chance of Success: Unknown (Moderate) Result: Increased name recognition in WV, Momentum in WV raised)
[] Prepare a speech. You know what fires up a crowd? A good speech. You aren't super strong in Ohio, but a good speech could help change that! A really good speech could help you out on debate day, or cripple your opponents going on the stage. Rubbing salt in the wound in Walker's case. (Pick topic of speech, It will be delivered in Ohio. Cost: 25k Chance of Success: Varies by state/topic. Result: Momentum greatly increased in Ohio NOTE: SPEECHES CAN BE USED TO ATTACK CANDIDATES)
[] Throw down. This is a presidential race, and the only guys who remain positive lose. Totally positive at least. You need to be ready to try and smash the competition, and hard! (Pick state, and issue of attack. Cost: 8k Chance of Success: Varies by Target Result: Reduced momentum for [CANDIDATE] in [STATE]. Can create negative momentum. Specify state + Attack)
[] Meet the local politicians. It's no secret Kasich has a total lock on the Ohio GOP. Seriously, the man is a goddamn beast when it comes to control, but despite that, maybe George can pry off a few of the state reps? Heck, a Congressman if you are lucky. Not a senator though. Rob Portman is already on Team Kasich. Speaking of…. (Cost: 10-15k Chance of Success: Unknown (Moderate-Low) Result: Endorsements in Ohio)
[] Meet the man himself. Two weeks ago you'd have been confident meeting with John, but now? Less so. Kasich had a lackluster debate, and now might be the perfect time to prey on his insecurities, possibly laying down a framework for his (inevitable) withdrawal once you crush him in NH. Even if that never comes to pass setting up a Non-Aggression pact so you can focus on the much greater threat of Rubio, Christie and Trump might be good, if he agrees to it. (Cost: 5-15k Chance of Success: Unknown (Moderate-High) Result: Non-Aggression pact with Kasich.)
LIBBY PATAKI ACTIONS
Well, Libby is loving cleveland! Unfortunately, her ankle is fully better yet, so she won't be doing much except helping to energise Team Pataki Ohio, and getting pampered by her husband.
-1 Pataki action this week.
Update is done! I'm pretty sure the financials are up to spec. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to turn my attention to writing the SPOILER CHARACTER interlude for GermanyQuest
