KarvokaQueen
Queen of the Coffee Cups
- Location
- City of Coffee, Upside-down land
Pretty much. He needs someone to fall back on to.
MakeAmericaSaneAgain. A 2016 political campaign.
- Thread starter KarvokaQueen
- Start date
- Original
Malaquez
[MUFFLED EUROBEAT]
- Location
- Singapore
So what I'm getting here is that Ralph needs to grow some balls.
Well, he's come to the right man! Peter will make a man out of him, or he's not a chain smoker!
KarvokaQueen
Queen of the Coffee Cups
- Location
- City of Coffee, Upside-down land
Well, I've just started work on turn 12, but I've found the ideal A-list candidate for Maryland!
Turn 12. The post-debate unwind.
KarvokaQueen
Queen of the Coffee Cups
- Location
- City of Coffee, Upside-down land
Turn 12
Holiday is next week!
"Yeah! Yeah, ma. I know. I know. Everything is ready. Relax. Look, I gotta get to work, but I'll call you right after an-no I am not bringing my wife for christ's sake don't sa-DAMMIT DON'T HANG UP ON ME!" You angrily end the call with your mother, pocketing your phone as you get out of your car. Rubbing your temples, you realise you haven't actually given much thought to where you and Jeanie stand. It's been half a week, and you've not really….talked about that. Getting into the aging elevator, you slowly get brought up to the Laxalt Consultancy office, stepping into the cool air of the office.
It's fucking chaos.
You've got your new office staff all over the goddamn place, rushing around trying to get things in order, so that you can enjoy the post-debate unwind. You've got until september for the next debate, so it will be a bit of a slow week for most of your staff and interns. Not you personally of course. As you notice Harry pushing yet more paper in that giant goddamn chair of his, you realise it isn't going to be any less stressful for him either. He's been working pretty goddamn hard trying to beat a decent polling system out of what you've given him, and frankly, he's done better than you could've hoped. You keep walking, passed Harry, who doesn't acknowledge you outside a nod, and head towards Jeanie's desk.
"Morning boss. Got your coffee." She stands up from her desk, handing over the scalding hot bean water that passess for your morning brew. Downing it, you cough a bit. It tastes fucking awful. If you didn't need it to function as a human being, you swear to christ you'd never drink the crap. "Also, The...uh. Hungarian Embassy called. They want a meeting with George. So....that's a thing that's happened." You are halfway through dirnking the rest of the rancid boiled bean brew when she tells you that, and you damn near spit your coffee. As it stands, a bit dribbles out of the corner of your mouth and you go red in the face. Gulping down the horrid drink, and suppressing the urge to throw it back up, Jeanie grabs a napkin off your desk and wipes some of the dribble mess from the corner of your mouth. "Ya, that was pretty much my reaction."
You finish gulping down your drink before responding, crumpling the cup and chucking it into the nearst bin. "Jeanie. Why the fuck would the Hungarian embassy be calling our office?" She shrugs, clearly as confused as you are.
"I mean, isn't Mr. Pataki's father from Hungary?" Parker chimes in, in a truly rare moment, with some actually fucking useful information. You slowly turn around to him, and he seems to cringe backwards. You've got an expression of pure, unrelenting hatred on your bright red, vein-popping face.
"Thank you. Parker. Jeanie, get Harry into my office. NOW!" Parker runs off, looking like he's about to shit himself after you suddenly start screaming, Jeanie doesn't even bother to wait, zipping off behind you to go get Henry.
It is nearly twenty five goddamn minutes before you clear everyone out.
So. Apparently the guy you thought was just some no-name New York hungarian culture club president was, actually, the president of Hungary. The country.
Yeah, no big deal.
So. Now you've got to deal with that.
[] Obviously you are going to tell George. It's a matter of framing, though. Apparently he and....shit, what was his name? Orbie Vidkun or something. Apparently they get on really well. Might as well get them to meet and talk about....whatever Hungarians talk about. Probably food? You'll be in attendance, obviously.
[] Tell George, let him handle it. You can't micromanage every aspect of George's campaign, and he's got an order of merit from this Vidal Orbs guy. Clearly they know each other. You may not be in attendance, of course. Probably for the best, given your understanding of hungarian comes from the fact the language is similar to Basque. How the fuck that happened you don't know.
Pushing that bullshit from your mind, you settle into your office chair. You don't need this kind of shit going on in your life. Absolutely don't. You can feel your chest pains returning already. You really need to see a fucking doctor about that at some point.
You open up your liquor cabinet and grab some of your good, expensive whiskey, and that calms you back down a bit, it goes down nice and smooth, and you can feel your entire body relax. That done, you open up the emails. It's a lot of the usual, with requests for interviews for George, yourself, and some questions from Kelly. Apparently she's still on the fence about timing her endorsement announcement.
Obviously you don't want it too early, as that would let the kick up the ass you'd get from it fade out. She doesn't want to do it too late as she wants the full benefit of having a moderate Republican polling well in both the general and the primary campaigning alongside her and of course she also wants your SuperPAC money, New Hampshire is going to be a tight fucking race for senate even if you blew Camp Clinton out of the fucking water in the general, and that isn't super likely anyway.
You fire back a quick response, you tell her that you reckon she should do the announcement on….
[] Write in.
That done, you start actually opening the other emails. George has a lot of requests for interviews after the rock fucking solid August 6th performance. The big ones are obviously Fox. You've got offers from Chris Wallace, Megyn kelly, and a bunch of other people.
[] Of course George is doing goddamn interviews! Set him up with at least two! (You get two free interviews, you can set the topic, keep in mind shows often have a target audience and political slant/focus. Any interview after the two free interviews will cost 1 pataki action.)
[] No interviews! It might seem stupid, but you reckon you can keep your momentum going into next week, and you'll have these bastards even more desperate for George to come on their show. They'll be talking about you anyway, after all!
Of course, you've got a few requests as well. Personally, you aren't up to doing interviews, it's not….for you. Definately not. However, there are plenty of people who would be happy to have you write editorials in their Newspaper.
[] Naturally you'll pen one this week. Things are moving so fluidly at the moment you should be able to crank one out without seriously impacting your free time. (You get one free editorial.)
[] Nah, you want to save your energy, and you don't need the headache of writing an editorial, especially if it goes wrong. That's a pain you don't need.
Done with that headache, you've sent away all the responses to those bastards in the media require. You've got a thing from Foreign Affairs, but their next issue isn't for a month and you don't give enough of a shit right now.
You do make sure to book a reminder to check that, marking and filing it, just to be sure, but you don't give enough of a shit to actually read it. Not yet, at least. You click over to Harry's emails. Most of it is just him expressing his constant, constant displeasure with his interns and his worries about whether or not you can trust Ralph.
You admit you've got some worries about Ralph's ability, and about how much you can trust him, but that's why you've put him in charge of A-list operations. What's he going to tell Jeb Bush? That he's been ordered to go to maryland and scope out candidates?
Yeah, you can see how that reaching Jeb's ears would be a catastrophe.
You do make a note to drop by and check on Ralph, both to welcome him to Team Pataki, and to ensure you catch him off balance and make sure he's still working hard.
Moving on from Harry's constant goddamn worrying about everything, you open up the polling emails, helpfully denoted by the fact Harry still types in fucking allcaps. Clicking them open, however, reveals Harry has actually begun to leave notes and analysis of each poll, telling you what to think.
That's....uncharacteristically helpful of him. The fuck is that about? Does he owe you money and you forgot? Could be.
Harry's Note: Walker is collapsing, all according to plan. It'll go lower in the next week, but we need to pump in more cash and boots on the ground to capitalise. Rubio/Cruz are hitting it hard.
Shit, Walker halved on his last poll. That's pretty fucking grim. For him, of course, not for you! For you that's fucking great. What isn't so great is the fact that Cruz and Rubio seem to have been the main recipients of the Jeb!/Walker implosion, not you. Still, as long as you finish in a respectable top 5 you'll be happy.
Harry's Note: New Hampshire is better than I was afraid it could be, but still worse than I was hoping for. Just look at that Rubio bump. That's a threat right there if I've ever seen one.
Shit, he's not kidding. Ordinarily you'd be pleased to be within the margin of error for first place, but Rubio jumped nearly ten percentage points in a week. That's not sustainable momentum, but still deeply concerning. Ted Cruz didn't get quite the bump you expected from the debate, though. You could attribute that to the moderate nature of New Hampshire, you suppose, but that wouldn't explain why Christie barely got a bump either. At least Kasich slid back a tiny bit. That's good to see. Granted, he slid back by less than 1%, but you'll take what you can get with that.
Harry's Note: Like I expecteed, Lindsey is back in charge in South Carolina. He's shot up much further than I thought he would. He's also taken a huge bite out of our support in state. If this holds up for the next few weeks, I'd write off SC.
Ouch. That's a pretty fucking harsh drop in support. Four percent....You knew you weren't going to do well in South Carolina, but that hurts to see. You agree with Harry, this holds up for the next few weeks, and it might be a good idea to just write the state off as a loss and move on to Nevada. SC is basically a winner-take-all state anyway. Barely any prize for second, and none for third.
Harry's Note: Big improvement over out last NV poll. Dissatisfaction seems to be very, very high with the candidates on offer. case in point, Brian Sandoval takes over 3% points despite announcing he is not running.
You gotta agree with Harry, that's not a huge dissapointment, compared to your last Nevada poll. It kind of confuses you that Brian Sandoval polls as high as he does, though. He's not even running for christsake.
Well....that's underwhelming. At least South Carolina is holding up better than you'd feared it would. Nevada looks very promising as well, but even so, you are clearly very, very vulnerable in the Hawk eye state. You need to pump in more shit and you need to do it soon, before Walker's vote has totally fallen apart and you can't cannibalise any of it. You also need to push Pataki back to New Hampshire so you can leapfrog that Orange skinned fuck and take your rightful place in first.
More than anything else, though, you need everything to be ready for your week-long trip back to Euskadi with your parents and Jeanie. You will be leaving instructions, and sending updated instructions from the hotel in Bilbao even when you are away. You are sure Harry will manage, but still. You hate to be away from the controls for long, and he's made it clear her works in polling not actual political campaigning. Can't fault him for that, he's been working pretty well with whatever you've dumped on him. Still, hopefully after a thorough rundown of the office, and what he'll need to cover, he should be set.
Of course, there is one last matter to attend to before you finally get into opening your spreadsheets and planning out the weeks operations.
The Basque fry-up is two weeks away. It cannot be overstated how important prepping George for it will be. If he makes a good impression while he goes there, he'll have basically sown-up support from the Nevada GOP for you. Having an absolute titan like Paul Laxalt backing you would be a coup that would throw you straight to the front of the ballot in Nevada. Never mind all of the other support he'd drag into your column. Of course, there is the matter of if you should address this right now, and take valuable time out of your schedule this week, or wait until the week it is on to get George up to speed.
[] Drill him this week. It'll be a drain on your time you can't really afford, but you know what else you can't afford? Losing Nevada. That is worse than losing a few hours of sleep. (Either costs 1 campaign and Pataki action or a large increase in stress.)
[] Not this week. You'll be away for next week, which means you'll have to do it in the days leading in to the actual up fry up, but frankly, you can't afford to miss the chance to capitalise on Walker's utter implosion in the polls. Or the associated stress.
CURRENT DATE: August 7th, 2015
NEXT DEBATE: September 16th, 2015
NEXT PRIMARY: Iowa, February 1st, 2016
Campaign Funds.
Campaign Warchest: 677k
Last Week Passive Fundraising: 38k
Ongoing Costs: 52k
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 Four.
[] 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.)
[] 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've been burning through your cash reserves like fucking crazy. You can't keep this spending pattern up for much longer, so clearly what you need to do is hit up the good old fundraising circuit. Get some more raw cash injected into the campaign! (Cost: Free. Chance of Success: 60% 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.)
RESEARCH TEAM
Well, Harry is nice and settled in the office, and ready to start up opposition research. He's also got some ideas about improving your polling, and of course, improving your opposition research.
Pick Three.
[] Infiltrators Infiltrating. Well, the upgrades have cost a pretty fucking penny, but Harry assures you he is confident that now things are fixed up in HQ, he can co-ordinate infiltration efforts much more effectively.(Cost: 12k Chance of Success: 75% Time to Completion: Two Weeks Result: Information on a specific campaign gained. Specify Candidate. 25% of failure being negated.)
[] Hiring janitors. Harry has some ideas about tightening up security around the office. That starts with hiring a couple of new staff to clean out the office at night. After all, big office like yours needs some cleaning staff! Nobody questions the people emptying the bins at midnight, if they wear the right uniform, after all. (Cost: 10k recruitment per team. 6k per team per turn.
[] Operation: Ratfuck. Harry isn't super comfortable with sabotage, but you'll be honest. Barely a fucking presidential race has gone by where people haven't tried to screw each other out of the nomination. You need to start fucking with the opposition, before the opposition fucks with you. (Cost: 15k Chance of Success: 35% Result: [TARGET] Candidate is sabotaged at a Rally. Heavy momentum penalty.)
[] Improving State Polling. Harry reckons with his office expanded, and with some more staff, he can really make a go at tidying up your private polling in New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada. It wouldn't even be super expensive. allegedly. (Cost: 10k Time to Completion: 2 turns Result: Polling staff expanded further. State polls improved.)
[] 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)
The A-List
Well, you've got Ralph set up in his new office, even if he seems hellbent on barricading himself inside and absolutely not talking to anyone else for any reason. You really gotta sort him out at some point. Guy seems to get terrified if you so much as look at him. Still, he's hit the ground running despite his crippling fear of raising your ire, and he's already laid out the ideal path for his "A-List" team in the coming weeks. He's offered one of two roots, at least for now. You want him to focus on, naturally, the... (PICK ONE)
[] Senate. Where the big decisions are made. Partly, you want him to focus here because most people only care about the senate, and partly, it is because it is much, much easier to co-ordinate in the short and long term. (Ralph Diammetra and the A-List team will focus on scoping out the senate races for A-list candidates and potential Pataki allies)
[] The House. Where government is formed. People might only really care about the senate, but everyone knows the house is where shit actually goes down. You've already got a few scalps you'd very much like to notch up, and if you want to break the back of those tea partying fucks you'll probably need to start here. (Raph Diammetra and the A-List team will focus on scoping out the House races for A-list candidates and potential Pataki allies)
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 3. One locked.)
[] Prepare a speech. You know what fires up a crowd? A good speech. Now that George is free from the shackles of Ohio, you can send him just about goddamn anywhere to hold a big rallying speech, to really put the screws in to that fuck Walker, or whoever else you decide has made the Peter P. Laxalt shitlist.(Pick topic of speech, State it will be given in. Cost: 15k Chance of Success: Varies by state/topic. Result: Momentum greatly increased in [STATE] 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)
[] Prep for the plank launch. You've been talking with Neil, and while you are fairly confident George is fired up enough, it couldn't hurt to have him and Neil go over the routine more than just a handful of times. You can even get some of the interns and staffers to roleplay hecklers and such. I mean, this is a university crowd, and George is a republican.
[X] Meeting Bob and Sue. George is going to be busy flying to Kansas and then DC to meet up with potential endorsers. The big ones. Robert Dole and Susan Collins. Hopefully, this goes well. LOCKED ACTION.
LIBBY PATAKI ACTIONS
Libby is back up! Ready to hit the campaign trail with George, or to go hit it herself. Or maybe just directing the offensive on Twitter. Either or.
[] Hit the track. Libby is rested and ready. Again. Hopefully she remains uninjured this time. (Cost: 8k. Chance of Success: 75% Result: +Momentum in [STATE]. Restricted to New England, New York, South Carolina, and Nevada.)
[] Fundraise. You aren't sure how well connected she really is, and you are swimming in cash right now, but it can't hurt to try and source some major donors. (Cost: 6k Chance of Success: 45% Result: Funds raised for Campaign/SuperPAC Specify which)
[] Twitterstorm. Libby did a damn good job on twitter during the debate. Pulled no punches, and helped reinforce you during the (very bad showing) against Rand. Maybe just have her accompany George on the trail and tweet about goings on? (Cost: Free Chance of Success: 65% Result: Libby keeps up your Twitter-based momentum.)
Whew! This took a while! Sorry about that. A sudden bout of very severe sickness slammed me into the ground right before christmas.
Anyway, enjoy! Always love to hear your thoughts, especially when an update like this, that I'm not super satisfied like this goes up.
Anyway, it's 2am, and I've let this authors note section run on far too long. Leave me any questions you've got and I'll try and explain what the hell is going on.
Holiday is next week!
"Yeah! Yeah, ma. I know. I know. Everything is ready. Relax. Look, I gotta get to work, but I'll call you right after an-no I am not bringing my wife for christ's sake don't sa-DAMMIT DON'T HANG UP ON ME!" You angrily end the call with your mother, pocketing your phone as you get out of your car. Rubbing your temples, you realise you haven't actually given much thought to where you and Jeanie stand. It's been half a week, and you've not really….talked about that. Getting into the aging elevator, you slowly get brought up to the Laxalt Consultancy office, stepping into the cool air of the office.
It's fucking chaos.
You've got your new office staff all over the goddamn place, rushing around trying to get things in order, so that you can enjoy the post-debate unwind. You've got until september for the next debate, so it will be a bit of a slow week for most of your staff and interns. Not you personally of course. As you notice Harry pushing yet more paper in that giant goddamn chair of his, you realise it isn't going to be any less stressful for him either. He's been working pretty goddamn hard trying to beat a decent polling system out of what you've given him, and frankly, he's done better than you could've hoped. You keep walking, passed Harry, who doesn't acknowledge you outside a nod, and head towards Jeanie's desk.
"Morning boss. Got your coffee." She stands up from her desk, handing over the scalding hot bean water that passess for your morning brew. Downing it, you cough a bit. It tastes fucking awful. If you didn't need it to function as a human being, you swear to christ you'd never drink the crap. "Also, The...uh. Hungarian Embassy called. They want a meeting with George. So....that's a thing that's happened." You are halfway through dirnking the rest of the rancid boiled bean brew when she tells you that, and you damn near spit your coffee. As it stands, a bit dribbles out of the corner of your mouth and you go red in the face. Gulping down the horrid drink, and suppressing the urge to throw it back up, Jeanie grabs a napkin off your desk and wipes some of the dribble mess from the corner of your mouth. "Ya, that was pretty much my reaction."
You finish gulping down your drink before responding, crumpling the cup and chucking it into the nearst bin. "Jeanie. Why the fuck would the Hungarian embassy be calling our office?" She shrugs, clearly as confused as you are.
"I mean, isn't Mr. Pataki's father from Hungary?" Parker chimes in, in a truly rare moment, with some actually fucking useful information. You slowly turn around to him, and he seems to cringe backwards. You've got an expression of pure, unrelenting hatred on your bright red, vein-popping face.
"Thank you. Parker. Jeanie, get Harry into my office. NOW!" Parker runs off, looking like he's about to shit himself after you suddenly start screaming, Jeanie doesn't even bother to wait, zipping off behind you to go get Henry.
It is nearly twenty five goddamn minutes before you clear everyone out.
So. Apparently the guy you thought was just some no-name New York hungarian culture club president was, actually, the president of Hungary. The country.
Yeah, no big deal.
So. Now you've got to deal with that.
[] Obviously you are going to tell George. It's a matter of framing, though. Apparently he and....shit, what was his name? Orbie Vidkun or something. Apparently they get on really well. Might as well get them to meet and talk about....whatever Hungarians talk about. Probably food? You'll be in attendance, obviously.
[] Tell George, let him handle it. You can't micromanage every aspect of George's campaign, and he's got an order of merit from this Vidal Orbs guy. Clearly they know each other. You may not be in attendance, of course. Probably for the best, given your understanding of hungarian comes from the fact the language is similar to Basque. How the fuck that happened you don't know.
Pushing that bullshit from your mind, you settle into your office chair. You don't need this kind of shit going on in your life. Absolutely don't. You can feel your chest pains returning already. You really need to see a fucking doctor about that at some point.
You open up your liquor cabinet and grab some of your good, expensive whiskey, and that calms you back down a bit, it goes down nice and smooth, and you can feel your entire body relax. That done, you open up the emails. It's a lot of the usual, with requests for interviews for George, yourself, and some questions from Kelly. Apparently she's still on the fence about timing her endorsement announcement.
Obviously you don't want it too early, as that would let the kick up the ass you'd get from it fade out. She doesn't want to do it too late as she wants the full benefit of having a moderate Republican polling well in both the general and the primary campaigning alongside her and of course she also wants your SuperPAC money, New Hampshire is going to be a tight fucking race for senate even if you blew Camp Clinton out of the fucking water in the general, and that isn't super likely anyway.
You fire back a quick response, you tell her that you reckon she should do the announcement on….
[] Write in.
That done, you start actually opening the other emails. George has a lot of requests for interviews after the rock fucking solid August 6th performance. The big ones are obviously Fox. You've got offers from Chris Wallace, Megyn kelly, and a bunch of other people.
Chris Wallace - Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace
Chuck Todd - Meet the Press with Chuck Todd
Jorge Ramos - Al Punto
Megyn Kelly - The Kelly File
Rachel Maddow - The Rachel Maddow Show
Howard Kurtz - #mediabuzz
Fareed Zakaria - Fareed Zakaria GPS
John King - Inside Politics
Chuck Todd - Meet the Press with Chuck Todd
Jorge Ramos - Al Punto
Megyn Kelly - The Kelly File
Rachel Maddow - The Rachel Maddow Show
Howard Kurtz - #mediabuzz
Fareed Zakaria - Fareed Zakaria GPS
John King - Inside Politics
[] Of course George is doing goddamn interviews! Set him up with at least two! (You get two free interviews, you can set the topic, keep in mind shows often have a target audience and political slant/focus. Any interview after the two free interviews will cost 1 pataki action.)
[] No interviews! It might seem stupid, but you reckon you can keep your momentum going into next week, and you'll have these bastards even more desperate for George to come on their show. They'll be talking about you anyway, after all!
Of course, you've got a few requests as well. Personally, you aren't up to doing interviews, it's not….for you. Definately not. However, there are plenty of people who would be happy to have you write editorials in their Newspaper.
Las Vegas Review Journal
Las Vegas Sun
Arizona Republic
USA Today
Washington Times
Los-Angeles Times
Chicago Sun-Times
Washington Post
Las Vegas Sun
Arizona Republic
USA Today
Washington Times
Los-Angeles Times
Chicago Sun-Times
Washington Post
[] Naturally you'll pen one this week. Things are moving so fluidly at the moment you should be able to crank one out without seriously impacting your free time. (You get one free editorial.)
[] Nah, you want to save your energy, and you don't need the headache of writing an editorial, especially if it goes wrong. That's a pain you don't need.
Done with that headache, you've sent away all the responses to those bastards in the media require. You've got a thing from Foreign Affairs, but their next issue isn't for a month and you don't give enough of a shit right now.
You do make sure to book a reminder to check that, marking and filing it, just to be sure, but you don't give enough of a shit to actually read it. Not yet, at least. You click over to Harry's emails. Most of it is just him expressing his constant, constant displeasure with his interns and his worries about whether or not you can trust Ralph.
You admit you've got some worries about Ralph's ability, and about how much you can trust him, but that's why you've put him in charge of A-list operations. What's he going to tell Jeb Bush? That he's been ordered to go to maryland and scope out candidates?
Yeah, you can see how that reaching Jeb's ears would be a catastrophe.
You do make a note to drop by and check on Ralph, both to welcome him to Team Pataki, and to ensure you catch him off balance and make sure he's still working hard.
Moving on from Harry's constant goddamn worrying about everything, you open up the polling emails, helpfully denoted by the fact Harry still types in fucking allcaps. Clicking them open, however, reveals Harry has actually begun to leave notes and analysis of each poll, telling you what to think.
That's....uncharacteristically helpful of him. The fuck is that about? Does he owe you money and you forgot? Could be.
|
Private Poll IA Margin of error: ± 2.3% Sample size: 440 |
August 3-10, 2015 |
Donald Trump 20.7% |
Ted Cruz 12.3% |
Ben Carson 11.9% |
George Pataki 11.5%, Marco Rubio 10.8%, Scott Walker 7.1%, Jeb Bush 5.8%, Mike Huckabee 4.1%, Rand Paul 3.9%, Chris Christie 6.1%, John Kasich 2.6%, Lindsey Graham 2%, Other 1.2% |
Shit, Walker halved on his last poll. That's pretty fucking grim. For him, of course, not for you! For you that's fucking great. What isn't so great is the fact that Cruz and Rubio seem to have been the main recipients of the Jeb!/Walker implosion, not you. Still, as long as you finish in a respectable top 5 you'll be happy.
|
Private Poll NH Margin of error: ± 3.0% Sample size: 401 |
August 3-10, 2015 |
Donald Trump 19.5% |
George Pataki 17.8% |
Marco Rubio 13.8% |
John Kasich 10.3%, Chris Christie 8.8%, Jeb Bush 6.3%, Ted Cruz 6.1%, Scott Walker 4.9%, Ben Carson 4%, Rand Paul 4%, Lindsey Graham 3.1%,Mike Huckabee 2%, Other 2.5% |
Shit, he's not kidding. Ordinarily you'd be pleased to be within the margin of error for first place, but Rubio jumped nearly ten percentage points in a week. That's not sustainable momentum, but still deeply concerning. Ted Cruz didn't get quite the bump you expected from the debate, though. You could attribute that to the moderate nature of New Hampshire, you suppose, but that wouldn't explain why Christie barely got a bump either. At least Kasich slid back a tiny bit. That's good to see. Granted, he slid back by less than 1%, but you'll take what you can get with that.
|
Private Poll SC Margin of error: ± 3.0% Sample size: 602 |
August 3-10, 2015 |
Lindsey Graham 28.4% |
Donald Trump 16.9% |
Ben Carson 10.5% |
George Pataki 9.2%, Scott Walker 8.3%, Marco Rubio 6.1%, Jeb Bush 4.9%, Mike Huckabee 3.5%, Ted Cruz 10.3%, John Kasich 2.3%, Chris Christie 2.2%, Other |
Ouch. That's a pretty fucking harsh drop in support. Four percent....You knew you weren't going to do well in South Carolina, but that hurts to see. You agree with Harry, this holds up for the next few weeks, and it might be a good idea to just write the state off as a loss and move on to Nevada. SC is basically a winner-take-all state anyway. Barely any prize for second, and none for third.
|
Private Poll NV Margin of error: ± 3.0% Sample size: 404 |
August 3-10, 2015 |
Marco Rubio 22.6% |
Donald Trump 19.5% |
Ted Cruz 14.5% |
George Pataki 10.8%, Ben Carson 7.5%, Chris Christie 7.4%, Scott Walker 3.3%, Jeb Bush 4.9%, Scott Walker 3.3%, Brian Sandoval 3.1%*, Mike Huckabee 2.5%, John Kasich 2.3%, Other 1.6% |
You gotta agree with Harry, that's not a huge dissapointment, compared to your last Nevada poll. It kind of confuses you that Brian Sandoval polls as high as he does, though. He's not even running for christsake.
Well....that's underwhelming. At least South Carolina is holding up better than you'd feared it would. Nevada looks very promising as well, but even so, you are clearly very, very vulnerable in the Hawk eye state. You need to pump in more shit and you need to do it soon, before Walker's vote has totally fallen apart and you can't cannibalise any of it. You also need to push Pataki back to New Hampshire so you can leapfrog that Orange skinned fuck and take your rightful place in first.
More than anything else, though, you need everything to be ready for your week-long trip back to Euskadi with your parents and Jeanie. You will be leaving instructions, and sending updated instructions from the hotel in Bilbao even when you are away. You are sure Harry will manage, but still. You hate to be away from the controls for long, and he's made it clear her works in polling not actual political campaigning. Can't fault him for that, he's been working pretty well with whatever you've dumped on him. Still, hopefully after a thorough rundown of the office, and what he'll need to cover, he should be set.
Of course, there is one last matter to attend to before you finally get into opening your spreadsheets and planning out the weeks operations.
The Basque fry-up is two weeks away. It cannot be overstated how important prepping George for it will be. If he makes a good impression while he goes there, he'll have basically sown-up support from the Nevada GOP for you. Having an absolute titan like Paul Laxalt backing you would be a coup that would throw you straight to the front of the ballot in Nevada. Never mind all of the other support he'd drag into your column. Of course, there is the matter of if you should address this right now, and take valuable time out of your schedule this week, or wait until the week it is on to get George up to speed.
[] Drill him this week. It'll be a drain on your time you can't really afford, but you know what else you can't afford? Losing Nevada. That is worse than losing a few hours of sleep. (Either costs 1 campaign and Pataki action or a large increase in stress.)
[] Not this week. You'll be away for next week, which means you'll have to do it in the days leading in to the actual up fry up, but frankly, you can't afford to miss the chance to capitalise on Walker's utter implosion in the polls. Or the associated stress.
CURRENT DATE: August 7th, 2015
NEXT DEBATE: September 16th, 2015
NEXT PRIMARY: Iowa, February 1st, 2016
Campaign Funds.
Campaign Warchest: 677k
Last Week Passive Fundraising: 38k
Ongoing Costs: 52k
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 Four.
[] 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.)
[] 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've been burning through your cash reserves like fucking crazy. You can't keep this spending pattern up for much longer, so clearly what you need to do is hit up the good old fundraising circuit. Get some more raw cash injected into the campaign! (Cost: Free. Chance of Success: 60% 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.)
RESEARCH TEAM
Well, Harry is nice and settled in the office, and ready to start up opposition research. He's also got some ideas about improving your polling, and of course, improving your opposition research.
Pick Three.
[] Infiltrators Infiltrating. Well, the upgrades have cost a pretty fucking penny, but Harry assures you he is confident that now things are fixed up in HQ, he can co-ordinate infiltration efforts much more effectively.(Cost: 12k Chance of Success: 75% Time to Completion: Two Weeks Result: Information on a specific campaign gained. Specify Candidate. 25% of failure being negated.)
[] Hiring janitors. Harry has some ideas about tightening up security around the office. That starts with hiring a couple of new staff to clean out the office at night. After all, big office like yours needs some cleaning staff! Nobody questions the people emptying the bins at midnight, if they wear the right uniform, after all. (Cost: 10k recruitment per team. 6k per team per turn.
[] Operation: Ratfuck. Harry isn't super comfortable with sabotage, but you'll be honest. Barely a fucking presidential race has gone by where people haven't tried to screw each other out of the nomination. You need to start fucking with the opposition, before the opposition fucks with you. (Cost: 15k Chance of Success: 35% Result: [TARGET] Candidate is sabotaged at a Rally. Heavy momentum penalty.)
[] Improving State Polling. Harry reckons with his office expanded, and with some more staff, he can really make a go at tidying up your private polling in New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada. It wouldn't even be super expensive. allegedly. (Cost: 10k Time to Completion: 2 turns Result: Polling staff expanded further. State polls improved.)
[] 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)
The A-List
Well, you've got Ralph set up in his new office, even if he seems hellbent on barricading himself inside and absolutely not talking to anyone else for any reason. You really gotta sort him out at some point. Guy seems to get terrified if you so much as look at him. Still, he's hit the ground running despite his crippling fear of raising your ire, and he's already laid out the ideal path for his "A-List" team in the coming weeks. He's offered one of two roots, at least for now. You want him to focus on, naturally, the... (PICK ONE)
[] Senate. Where the big decisions are made. Partly, you want him to focus here because most people only care about the senate, and partly, it is because it is much, much easier to co-ordinate in the short and long term. (Ralph Diammetra and the A-List team will focus on scoping out the senate races for A-list candidates and potential Pataki allies)
[] The House. Where government is formed. People might only really care about the senate, but everyone knows the house is where shit actually goes down. You've already got a few scalps you'd very much like to notch up, and if you want to break the back of those tea partying fucks you'll probably need to start here. (Raph Diammetra and the A-List team will focus on scoping out the House races for A-list candidates and potential Pataki allies)
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 3. One locked.)
[] Storm the Barn. Now George is back in gear for the campaign, it is time that you put him back to use and have him hit the stump in Iowa. Getting reservations and setting up town halls is starting to get more expensive, and it is just going to get more and more so. (Cost: 8k Chance of Success: 80% Result: Momentum in IA increased)
[] Made of Granite. Well, you want to push past Trump and stay ahead of Rubio you need to get Pataki pounding ground in the Granite state. Now. This can't wait. Not at fucking all. (Cost: 12k Chance of Success: 85% Result: Momentum in NH increased.)
[] In the shade of the Palm Trees. Lindsey might've pulled away from the pack in South Carolina, but that's no reason to give up yet. No, giving up will come later, when you've got Lindsey in a smoke-filled back room. (Cost: 15k. Chance of Success: 80% Result: Momentum/Footsoldier morale raised in SC)
[] Storming the Ranch. It's about time George visited Nevada. It'd be good to familiarise him with the heat for when he visits for the fry up in two weeks. Can't afford to fuck that up, after all.
[] Stomping the Pines. You don't want to seem overly focused on the first four states, and while you could send George out into the South or the plains states blind, you've got at least some infrastructure leaking over into Maine, Vermont, and Massachussets. You could easily have George swing by, hold a couple of town halls, maybe give a stump speech or two, and build up excitement. Vermont and Massachusets are Super Tuesday I states, after all. (Cost: Varies by state. Low. Chance of Success: Moderate-High. Result: Name Recognition/Momentum boosted in New England state. Must specify which state.)
[] Made of Granite. Well, you want to push past Trump and stay ahead of Rubio you need to get Pataki pounding ground in the Granite state. Now. This can't wait. Not at fucking all. (Cost: 12k Chance of Success: 85% Result: Momentum in NH increased.)
[] In the shade of the Palm Trees. Lindsey might've pulled away from the pack in South Carolina, but that's no reason to give up yet. No, giving up will come later, when you've got Lindsey in a smoke-filled back room. (Cost: 15k. Chance of Success: 80% Result: Momentum/Footsoldier morale raised in SC)
[] Storming the Ranch. It's about time George visited Nevada. It'd be good to familiarise him with the heat for when he visits for the fry up in two weeks. Can't afford to fuck that up, after all.
[] Stomping the Pines. You don't want to seem overly focused on the first four states, and while you could send George out into the South or the plains states blind, you've got at least some infrastructure leaking over into Maine, Vermont, and Massachussets. You could easily have George swing by, hold a couple of town halls, maybe give a stump speech or two, and build up excitement. Vermont and Massachusets are Super Tuesday I states, after all. (Cost: Varies by state. Low. Chance of Success: Moderate-High. Result: Name Recognition/Momentum boosted in New England state. Must specify which state.)
[] 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)
[] Prep for the plank launch. You've been talking with Neil, and while you are fairly confident George is fired up enough, it couldn't hurt to have him and Neil go over the routine more than just a handful of times. You can even get some of the interns and staffers to roleplay hecklers and such. I mean, this is a university crowd, and George is a republican.
[X] Meeting Bob and Sue. George is going to be busy flying to Kansas and then DC to meet up with potential endorsers. The big ones. Robert Dole and Susan Collins. Hopefully, this goes well. LOCKED ACTION.
LIBBY PATAKI ACTIONS
Libby is back up! Ready to hit the campaign trail with George, or to go hit it herself. Or maybe just directing the offensive on Twitter. Either or.
[] Hit the track. Libby is rested and ready. Again. Hopefully she remains uninjured this time. (Cost: 8k. Chance of Success: 75% Result: +Momentum in [STATE]. Restricted to New England, New York, South Carolina, and Nevada.)
[] Fundraise. You aren't sure how well connected she really is, and you are swimming in cash right now, but it can't hurt to try and source some major donors. (Cost: 6k Chance of Success: 45% Result: Funds raised for Campaign/SuperPAC Specify which)
[] Twitterstorm. Libby did a damn good job on twitter during the debate. Pulled no punches, and helped reinforce you during the (very bad showing) against Rand. Maybe just have her accompany George on the trail and tweet about goings on? (Cost: Free Chance of Success: 65% Result: Libby keeps up your Twitter-based momentum.)
Whew! This took a while! Sorry about that. A sudden bout of very severe sickness slammed me into the ground right before christmas.
Anyway, enjoy! Always love to hear your thoughts, especially when an update like this, that I'm not super satisfied like this goes up.
Anyway, it's 2am, and I've let this authors note section run on far too long. Leave me any questions you've got and I'll try and explain what the hell is going on.
Hungary, feels like Pataki should have it covered. He's competent enough.
Hmm, eat the stress? We are going on vacation right after anyways...
We're having heart pains NOW however. Not sure it's a good idea to risk it.
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Point, hmm, actions will hurt, but leaving it for later would hurt...
Given our... charming personality, I say we should probably let George handle this. OTOH, perhaps we could do a write-in so tht we at least talk about the political implications before the meet-and-greet.... @The Karvoka Man?
Has Trump done his notorious "blood coming out her wherever" line yet? If so, then I'd be inclined to interview with Megyn Kelly just to hammer a few more nails into Trump. Apart from that... our focus this week was supposed to be on introducing Neil deGrasse Tyson, so maybe do a science/infrastructure-themed interview?
Speaking of: Karvoka... what happened to that? Weren't we publicizing our endorsement by "Mr. Science" this week?
Any editorial requests from newspapers in Iowa, New Hampshire, or South Carolina...?
Do we have to know which specific state a donor is from? That's not information I'm aware of, and I wouldn't even know how to begin to pursue it. We want to pursue moderate/centrist GOP endorsers of the old 'Nelson Rockefeller' sort, but I don't know who those people are. Perhaps we could snipe a few from Jeb's team...?
...I can't help but notice that none of these options include anything about Opposition Research! Seriously, we got infiltrating, securing against infiltrating, sabotaging a rally, state polling, national polling, and no opposition research.
Was this a typo or accidental omission, or are we really not allowed to conduct Oppo-research (again)?
EDIT: ...huh?
How is 'national polling' related to opposition research? I'm not sure what connection exists, let alone why national polling is a necessary prerequisite for doing oppo-research. @The Karvoka Man, what gives?
EDIT:
...Are we ever going to be given that option?
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- Location
- Europe
Meeting with Orban:
[] Tell George, let him handle it. You can't micromanage every aspect of George's campaign, and he's got an order of merit from this Vidal Orbs guy. Clearly they know each other. You may not be in attendance, of course. Probably for the best, given your understanding of hungarian comes from the fact the language is similar to Basque. How the fuck that happened you don't know.
Interviews:
[] Of course George is doing goddamn interviews! Set him up with at least two! (You get two free interviews, you can set the topic, keep in mind shows often have a target audience and political slant/focus. Any interview after the two free interviews will cost 1 pataki action.)
-[] Chris Wallace - Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace
-[] Megyn Kelly - The Kelly File
Editorials:
[] Naturally you'll pen one this week. Things are moving so fluidly at the moment you should be able to crank one out without seriously impacting your free time. (You get one free editorial.)
-[] USA Today
Nevada Meeting:
[] Drill him this week. It'll be a drain on your time you can't really afford, but you know what else you can't afford? Losing Nevada. That is worse than losing a few hours of sleep. (Either costs 1 campaign and Pataki action or a large increase in stress.) -1 Campaign action
Campaign Actions:
[] 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.) State: New Hampshire
[] 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.) Target: Walker
[] Money makes the (political) world go round! You've been burning through your cash reserves like fucking crazy. You can't keep this spending pattern up for much longer, so clearly what you need to do is hit up the good old fundraising circuit. Get some more raw cash injected into the campaign! (Cost: Free. Chance of Success: 60% Result: +Unknown amount of K. Possible major fundraiser contacted. Specify State) State: New York
Research Actions:
[] Infiltrators Infiltrating. Well, the upgrades have cost a pretty fucking penny, but Harry assures you he is confident that now things are fixed up in HQ, he can co-ordinate infiltration efforts much more effectively.(Cost: 12k Chance of Success: 75% Time to Completion: Two Weeks Result: Information on a specific campaign gained. Specify Candidate. 25% of failure being negated.) Target: Marco Rubio
[] Infiltrators Infiltrating. Well, the upgrades have cost a pretty fucking penny, but Harry assures you he is confident that now things are fixed up in HQ, he can co-ordinate infiltration efforts much more effectively.(Cost: 12k Chance of Success: 75% Time to Completion: Two Weeks Result: Information on a specific campaign gained. Specify Candidate. 25% of failure being negated.) Target: Ted Cruz
[] Improving State Polling. Harry reckons with his office expanded, and with some more staff, he can really make a go at tidying up your private polling in New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada. It wouldn't even be super expensive. allegedly. (Cost: 10k Time to Completion: 2 turns Result: Polling staff expanded further. State polls improved.)
The A-List:
[] The House. Where government is formed. People might only really care about the senate, but everyone knows the house is where shit actually goes down. You've already got a few scalps you'd very much like to notch up, and if you want to break the back of those tea partying fucks you'll probably need to start here. (Raph Diammetra and the A-List team will focus on scoping out the House races for A-list candidates and potential Pataki allies)
Pataki Actions:
[] Storm the Barn. Now George is back in gear for the campaign, it is time that you put him back to use and have him hit the stump in Iowa. Getting reservations and setting up town halls is starting to get more expensive, and it is just going to get more and more so. (Cost: 8k Chance of Success: 80% Result: Momentum in IA increased)
[] Made of Granite. Well, you want to push past Trump and stay ahead of Rubio you need to get Pataki pounding ground in the Granite state. Now. This can't wait. Not at fucking all. (Cost: 12k Chance of Success: 85% Result: Momentum in NH increased.)
[] Prep for the plank launch. You've been talking with Neil, and while you are fairly confident George is fired up enough, it couldn't hurt to have him and Neil go over the routine more than just a handful of times. You can even get some of the interns and staffers to roleplay hecklers and such. I mean, this is a university crowd, and George is a republican.
[] Meeting Bob and Sue. George is going to be busy flying to Kansas and then DC to meet up with potential endorsers. The big ones. Robert Dole and Susan Collins. Hopefully, this goes well. LOCKED ACTION.
Libby Actions:
[] Hit the track. Libby is rested and ready. Again. Hopefully she remains uninjured this time. (Cost: 8k. Chance of Success: 75% Result: +Momentum in [STATE]. Restricted to New England, New York, South Carolina, and Nevada. State: New Hampshire
[] Tell George, let him handle it. You can't micromanage every aspect of George's campaign, and he's got an order of merit from this Vidal Orbs guy. Clearly they know each other. You may not be in attendance, of course. Probably for the best, given your understanding of hungarian comes from the fact the language is similar to Basque. How the fuck that happened you don't know.
Interviews:
[] Of course George is doing goddamn interviews! Set him up with at least two! (You get two free interviews, you can set the topic, keep in mind shows often have a target audience and political slant/focus. Any interview after the two free interviews will cost 1 pataki action.)
-[] Chris Wallace - Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace
-[] Megyn Kelly - The Kelly File
Editorials:
[] Naturally you'll pen one this week. Things are moving so fluidly at the moment you should be able to crank one out without seriously impacting your free time. (You get one free editorial.)
-[] USA Today
Nevada Meeting:
[] Drill him this week. It'll be a drain on your time you can't really afford, but you know what else you can't afford? Losing Nevada. That is worse than losing a few hours of sleep. (Either costs 1 campaign and Pataki action or a large increase in stress.) -1 Campaign action
Campaign Actions:
[] 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.) State: New Hampshire
[] 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.) Target: Walker
[] Money makes the (political) world go round! You've been burning through your cash reserves like fucking crazy. You can't keep this spending pattern up for much longer, so clearly what you need to do is hit up the good old fundraising circuit. Get some more raw cash injected into the campaign! (Cost: Free. Chance of Success: 60% Result: +Unknown amount of K. Possible major fundraiser contacted. Specify State) State: New York
Research Actions:
[] Infiltrators Infiltrating. Well, the upgrades have cost a pretty fucking penny, but Harry assures you he is confident that now things are fixed up in HQ, he can co-ordinate infiltration efforts much more effectively.(Cost: 12k Chance of Success: 75% Time to Completion: Two Weeks Result: Information on a specific campaign gained. Specify Candidate. 25% of failure being negated.) Target: Marco Rubio
[] Infiltrators Infiltrating. Well, the upgrades have cost a pretty fucking penny, but Harry assures you he is confident that now things are fixed up in HQ, he can co-ordinate infiltration efforts much more effectively.(Cost: 12k Chance of Success: 75% Time to Completion: Two Weeks Result: Information on a specific campaign gained. Specify Candidate. 25% of failure being negated.) Target: Ted Cruz
[] Improving State Polling. Harry reckons with his office expanded, and with some more staff, he can really make a go at tidying up your private polling in New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada. It wouldn't even be super expensive. allegedly. (Cost: 10k Time to Completion: 2 turns Result: Polling staff expanded further. State polls improved.)
The A-List:
[] The House. Where government is formed. People might only really care about the senate, but everyone knows the house is where shit actually goes down. You've already got a few scalps you'd very much like to notch up, and if you want to break the back of those tea partying fucks you'll probably need to start here. (Raph Diammetra and the A-List team will focus on scoping out the House races for A-list candidates and potential Pataki allies)
Pataki Actions:
[] Storm the Barn. Now George is back in gear for the campaign, it is time that you put him back to use and have him hit the stump in Iowa. Getting reservations and setting up town halls is starting to get more expensive, and it is just going to get more and more so. (Cost: 8k Chance of Success: 80% Result: Momentum in IA increased)
[] Made of Granite. Well, you want to push past Trump and stay ahead of Rubio you need to get Pataki pounding ground in the Granite state. Now. This can't wait. Not at fucking all. (Cost: 12k Chance of Success: 85% Result: Momentum in NH increased.)
[] Prep for the plank launch. You've been talking with Neil, and while you are fairly confident George is fired up enough, it couldn't hurt to have him and Neil go over the routine more than just a handful of times. You can even get some of the interns and staffers to roleplay hecklers and such. I mean, this is a university crowd, and George is a republican.
[] Meeting Bob and Sue. George is going to be busy flying to Kansas and then DC to meet up with potential endorsers. The big ones. Robert Dole and Susan Collins. Hopefully, this goes well. LOCKED ACTION.
Libby Actions:
[] Hit the track. Libby is rested and ready. Again. Hopefully she remains uninjured this time. (Cost: 8k. Chance of Success: 75% Result: +Momentum in [STATE]. Restricted to New England, New York, South Carolina, and Nevada. State: New Hampshire
First off Pataki should meet Orban alone for a lot of reasons. We're not a people person and we're definitely not Hungarian.
Of course we George should do the interviews but he should focus on Fox since we're looking to woo Republicans right now, not Independents or Democrats. We should also do the Editorial, though I'm not sure what newspaper we should go with. USA Today so I picked it as a tentative candidate.
I don't really think we need the extra campaign action this week and we have no idea what's coming us (could be a huge shitstorm) so it's better to lose the action now.
In regards to campaign actions, we need money and there's no place better than New York. Secondly, our expansion of our ad department should be utilised but I don't think we have to money to invest in television advertisement quite yet. We need to go all out in New Hampshire to stop Rubio and Kasich from gaining any momentum. Lastly, I think the endorsers of Scott Walker are getting rather worried about his numbers and know he'll drop out soon, so we should be able to gain quite a few endorsements there.
Now, research actions were a bit trickier but I think getting information on Rubio and Cruz now could really benefit us later. I want to get national polling but it takes such a long time to set up and the costs are quite prohibitive. Our A-team should be focused on the house, since it has a lot more openings for anti-establishment candidates. The Senate, by it's very nature, seems to be dominated by insiders and establishment candidates, while the House is a bit of a free-for-all, for good or ill.
Pataki needs to focus on his planks and the NH primary, which is why I sent Libby there. Of course, we can't neglect Iowa either, which leaves Nevada and SC out to dry. Not really sure here but if Graham doesn't drop out before the SC primary, we might as well just ignore it.
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[X] Plan Live Free or Die
(Reasoning: this turn we'll be doubling-down on New Hampshire in time for the plank release. Probably more important, but less emphasized this turn, is our absolute and unquenchable need for money. We should prioritize 'national polling' as soon as possible to let us get started on actual opposition research, but it's a massive expense, so that should be our early priority & goal.
HUNGARIAN MEET-AND-GREET
[X] Write-In: ask Harry (research guy) to give us Victor Orban's background and discuss what the best 'play' is. Tell George about message, but work with him on making it work with the campaign. George will meet Orban without you -- all you know about Hungarian is that it sounds kinda like Basque -- but perhaps he might invite a major supporter or endorser to sit alongside. Try to schedule a meeting (if there is one) for the same week we release our Immigration plank.
(Reasoning: we have no charisma, so we should definitely stay out of the meeting. On the other hand, we're the campaign manager, and Orban is controversial, so we should definitely stage-manage the whole affair. Let's get info from our resident nerd (maybe ask Nate as well), and discuss how it will play. Given Orban's reputation re: Syrian refugee crisis, this might be our chance to introduce our immigration minor plank, focusing on the current system's dysfunction, the national security implications, and the need for legal immigration with legal oversight).
KELLY AYOTTE ANNOUNCEMENT
[X] Write-In: suggest we do a joint campaign event right before or after a future debate, so it gets maximum visibility for a national audience. With her permission, we might wait until after the New Year, scheduling the endorsement event for shortly before the voting begins. We could schedule it around the Iowa debate, or even wait until the Manchester debate right before New Hampshire's vote, for maximum effect. Alternately, we could schedule it for the October debate if she'd prefer to do it sooner.
(Reasoning: I haven't decided, but figured a joint campaign event would be big for both of us. A last-minute endorsement could swing things our way -- Ayotte is pretty popular in the state GOP, so her support would benefit us a lot. It's worth pointing out that Ayotte is pretty much guaranteed to win the GOP primary, so her main concern is 1) ensuring we win so she has a strong GOP presidential candidate to ride the coattails of, and 2) getting our help to campaign against her Democratic opponent next November. That second one is a long way off, so we can be a bit selfish in how we use her endorsement).
TV INTERVIEWS
[X] Of course George is doing goddamn interviews! Set him up with at least two! (You get two free interviews, you can set the topic, keep in mind shows often have a target audience and political slant/focus. Any interview after the two free interviews will cost 1 pataki action.)
-[X] Chris Wallace - Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace (Topic: Trump)
-[X] Megyn Kelly - The Kelly File (Topic: 'Secure our Future' plank release)
(Reasoning: given Trump's gaffes this week and weekend -- the Clinton brag, plus "blood coming out her wherever" -- and our own crit-successful speech attacking him, we should take the opportunity to attack him further. Chris Wallace is widely respected and a good journalist, so we can expect to be probed on the issue of the pledge, and follow up with our thoughts on the debate as a whole. Going on the 'Kelly File' is an obvious pick, especially since Trump's gaffe was referring to her, but it'd be a little gauche to be interviewed with Megyn Kelly just to defend her from Trump's attacks. Better to use her interview to nail down our plank release while it's still hot. As always, I'm open to suggestions).
NEWSPAPER EDITORIAL
[X] Naturally you'll pen one this week. Things are moving so fluidly at the moment you should be able to crank one out without seriously impacting your free time. (You get one free editorial.)
-[X] Las Vegas Review Journal (Topic: 'Secure Our Future' plank release -- ask for NdGT's help in writing it?)
(Reasoning: we're releasing our science-y plank this week, in a New Hampshire rally. Let's keep our name in the Nevada papers, but writing an editorial on the topic for Nevada audiences. Alternately, we could send it to the Washington Post for a national audience -- I'm willing to be persuaded here).
NEVADA MEET-AND-GREET
[X] Drill him this week. It'll be a drain on your time you can't really afford, but you know what else you can't afford? Losing Nevada. That is worse than losing a few hours of sleep. (Either costs 1 campaign and Pataki action or a large increase in stress.)
-[X] Cost: 1 Campaign + 1 Pataki action
(Reasoning: let's bite the bullet and get him ready for this. We're surging pretty decently this week, and this meeting may well win us Nevada, so it takes priority, especially this early in the game...)
CAMPAIGN ACTIONS:Pick Four. (Pick Three)
[X] 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.)
-[X] Bush
[X] Money makes the (political) world go round! You've been burning through your cash reserves like fucking crazy. You can't keep this spending pattern up for much longer, so clearly what you need to do is hit up the good old fundraising circuit. Get some more raw cash injected into the campaign! (Cost: Free. Chance of Success: 60% Result: +Unknown amount of K. Possible major fundraiser contacted. Specify State)
-[X] New York
[X] Money makes the (political) world go round! You've been burning through your cash reserves like fucking crazy. You can't keep this spending pattern up for much longer, so clearly what you need to do is hit up the good old fundraising circuit. Get some more raw cash injected into the campaign! (Cost: Free. Chance of Success: 60% Result: +Unknown amount of K. Possible major fundraiser contacted. Specify State)
-[X] Connecticut
(Reasoning:Twitter wars work for us, so let's keep going up with that. Politics is still 'inside baseball' this early on, and I'd prefer to keep our surge of TV and newspaper ads for later in the campaign. Twitter wars, otoh, put us in direct contention with Trump, and force the media to give us free PR without spending nearly as much of our own cash. Plus, the media practically has to mention us whenever they discuss Trump, which is very much needed to blunt his PR edge. Finally, it's cheap, and we need more money. Given that we can double-down on fundraising, I did so based on my info-dump post here, specifically targeting New York and Connecticut given the number of major (multi-million-dollar) donors who favor centrist candidates in both states. Once we secure Laxalt's endorsement in Nevada, we might reach out to the big man himself, Sheldon Adelson, to get his imprimatur and donations . But that's for later. As for 'stealing endorsements', I'm not convinced Walker has much of anyone left -- most of his Wisconsin core stayed loyal, but per Nate's advise we don't want to steal those just yet, not least because of the appearance of complicity in Walker's corruption. I decided to target Bush again, though I wonder if we should have a higher chance of success since so many of Bush's backers are endorsing us already. We have momentum in that regard, at least.... Plus, the Bush family and its backers are notoriously rich, so hopefully we'll win a donor or two).
RESEARCH TEAM: Pick Three.
[X] Hiring janitors. Harry has some ideas about tightening up security around the office. That starts with hiring a couple of new staff to clean out the office at night. After all, big office like yours needs some cleaning staff! Nobody questions the people emptying the bins at midnight, if they wear the right uniform, after all. (Cost: 10k recruitment per team. 6k per team per turn.)
[X] Infiltrators Infiltrating. Well, the upgrades have cost a pretty fucking penny, but Harry assures you he is confident that now things are fixed up in HQ, he can co-ordinate infiltration efforts much more effectively.(Cost: 12k Chance of Success: 75% Time to Completion: Two Weeks Result: Information on a specific campaign gained. Specify Candidate. 25% of failure being negated.)
-[X] Target: Chris Christie
[X] Improving State Polling. Harry reckons with his office expanded, and with some more staff, he can really make a go at tidying up your private polling in New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada. It wouldn't even be super expensive. allegedly. (Cost: 10k Time to Completion: 2 turns Result: Polling staff expanded further. State polls improved.)
(Reasoning: deeply displeased that we can't engage in actual opposition research, or that 'national polling' is needed to do it well. We can't afford national polling at the moment, which is why we need to emphasize fundraising for the next few turns, so we can afford to keep this party going. State polling, otoh, should help considerably. I was persuaded to target Christie instead of Cruz for our infiltration attempt -- especially since Christie is an attack dog, and we need a way to blunt his attacks when he inevitably comes after us. Rubio is more peaceable -- more charismatic, but less effective on the attack, so we don't need to worry about him as a short-term threat. That's why I replaced the 'infiltrate Rubio' action with 'secure our offices' against rival infiltration.)
(All that said, we need opposition research, and I mean actual research. For one thing, conducting oppo-research on your own candidate is the most reliable way of seeing what's out there and what our competitors will attack us with down the road (which is why self-directed oppo-research is a staple of modern campaigns). In addition, we need to dig up dirt on Trump is we want to have any hope of scuttling his campaign -- infiltration to pick up his tactics won't do that for us, since Trump has barely any infrastructure to infiltrate or pre-planned tactics to pick up.).
THE A-LIST: Pick One
[X] Senate. Where the big decisions are made. Partly, you want him to focus here because most people only care about the senate, and partly, it is because it is much, much easier to co-ordinate in the short and long term. (Ralph Diammetra and the A-List team will focus on scoping out the senate races for A-list candidates and potential Pataki allies)
(Reasoning: hopefully we'll get a chance to add a second 'focus' later in the campaign. I'm pretty torn on this one, but was persuaded by the Senate text "much, much easier to coordinate." That's huge -- this is a major initiative, with little precedent and virtually no established infrastructure. If the 'Senate' is the easy-mode (high profile) tack, then let's do that first before we enter 'hard mode' nitty-gritty stuff later).
PATAKI ACTIONS:Pick Three. Pick Two. One locked. )
[X] Prep for the plank launch. You've been talking with Neil, and while you are fairly confident George is fired up enough, it couldn't hurt to have him and Neil go over the routine more than just a handful of times. You can even get some of the interns and staffers to roleplay hecklers and such. I mean, this is a university crowd, and George is a republican.
[X] Meeting Bob and Sue. George is going to be busy flying to Kansas and then DC to meet up with potential endorsers. The big ones. Robert Dole and Susan Collins. Hopefully, this goes well. LOCKED ACTION.
[X] Storming the Ranch. It's about time George visited Nevada. It'd be good to familiarise him with the heat for when he visits for the fry up in two weeks. Can't afford to fuck that up, after all.
(Reasoning: meeting with the two endorsers is locked. Our next biggest priority is making sure this week's plank release goes smoothly, especially since we're getting Neil deGrasse Tyson's endorsement at the same time. Let's make sure we nail it. I'm somewhat torn for our third action of the week. I've tentatively decided on dropping by Nevada -- the text indicates it will boost our chance of success when Pataki meets Mr. Laxalt, which is easily the most important event we can look forward to since it'd lock up Nevada. I'm willing to change my mind if someone feels particularly strongly -- it might be good to barnstorm in New Hampshire or South Carolina to boost our post-debate momentum. I'd also be curious to see if we could send Pataki after donors directly).
LIBBY PATAKI ACTIONS: Pick One.
[X] Twitterstorm. Libby did a damn good job on twitter during the debate. Pulled no punches, and helped reinforce you during the (very bad showing) against Rand. Maybe just have her accompany George on the trail and tweet about goings on? (Cost: Free Chance of Success: 65% Result: Libby keeps up your Twitter-based momentum.)
(Reasoning: we desperately need more money, but fundraising directly only gives us a 50-50 chance. We could also send Libby out to campaign, to boost our momentum and gain more money, but I'm inclined to go with the action that doesn't cost anything. Using Libby for twitter wars should help keep up our online momentum, and give us a go-to respondent for Trump's latest gaffe).
(Reasoning: this turn we'll be doubling-down on New Hampshire in time for the plank release. Probably more important, but less emphasized this turn, is our absolute and unquenchable need for money. We should prioritize 'national polling' as soon as possible to let us get started on actual opposition research, but it's a massive expense, so that should be our early priority & goal.
HUNGARIAN MEET-AND-GREET
[X] Write-In: ask Harry (research guy) to give us Victor Orban's background and discuss what the best 'play' is. Tell George about message, but work with him on making it work with the campaign. George will meet Orban without you -- all you know about Hungarian is that it sounds kinda like Basque -- but perhaps he might invite a major supporter or endorser to sit alongside. Try to schedule a meeting (if there is one) for the same week we release our Immigration plank.
(Reasoning: we have no charisma, so we should definitely stay out of the meeting. On the other hand, we're the campaign manager, and Orban is controversial, so we should definitely stage-manage the whole affair. Let's get info from our resident nerd (maybe ask Nate as well), and discuss how it will play. Given Orban's reputation re: Syrian refugee crisis, this might be our chance to introduce our immigration minor plank, focusing on the current system's dysfunction, the national security implications, and the need for legal immigration with legal oversight).
KELLY AYOTTE ANNOUNCEMENT
[X] Write-In: suggest we do a joint campaign event right before or after a future debate, so it gets maximum visibility for a national audience. With her permission, we might wait until after the New Year, scheduling the endorsement event for shortly before the voting begins. We could schedule it around the Iowa debate, or even wait until the Manchester debate right before New Hampshire's vote, for maximum effect. Alternately, we could schedule it for the October debate if she'd prefer to do it sooner.
(Reasoning: I haven't decided, but figured a joint campaign event would be big for both of us. A last-minute endorsement could swing things our way -- Ayotte is pretty popular in the state GOP, so her support would benefit us a lot. It's worth pointing out that Ayotte is pretty much guaranteed to win the GOP primary, so her main concern is 1) ensuring we win so she has a strong GOP presidential candidate to ride the coattails of, and 2) getting our help to campaign against her Democratic opponent next November. That second one is a long way off, so we can be a bit selfish in how we use her endorsement).
TV INTERVIEWS
[X] Of course George is doing goddamn interviews! Set him up with at least two! (You get two free interviews, you can set the topic, keep in mind shows often have a target audience and political slant/focus. Any interview after the two free interviews will cost 1 pataki action.)
-[X] Chris Wallace - Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace (Topic: Trump)
-[X] Megyn Kelly - The Kelly File (Topic: 'Secure our Future' plank release)
(Reasoning: given Trump's gaffes this week and weekend -- the Clinton brag, plus "blood coming out her wherever" -- and our own crit-successful speech attacking him, we should take the opportunity to attack him further. Chris Wallace is widely respected and a good journalist, so we can expect to be probed on the issue of the pledge, and follow up with our thoughts on the debate as a whole. Going on the 'Kelly File' is an obvious pick, especially since Trump's gaffe was referring to her, but it'd be a little gauche to be interviewed with Megyn Kelly just to defend her from Trump's attacks. Better to use her interview to nail down our plank release while it's still hot. As always, I'm open to suggestions).
NEWSPAPER EDITORIAL
[X] Naturally you'll pen one this week. Things are moving so fluidly at the moment you should be able to crank one out without seriously impacting your free time. (You get one free editorial.)
-[X] Las Vegas Review Journal (Topic: 'Secure Our Future' plank release -- ask for NdGT's help in writing it?)
(Reasoning: we're releasing our science-y plank this week, in a New Hampshire rally. Let's keep our name in the Nevada papers, but writing an editorial on the topic for Nevada audiences. Alternately, we could send it to the Washington Post for a national audience -- I'm willing to be persuaded here).
NEVADA MEET-AND-GREET
[X] Drill him this week. It'll be a drain on your time you can't really afford, but you know what else you can't afford? Losing Nevada. That is worse than losing a few hours of sleep. (Either costs 1 campaign and Pataki action or a large increase in stress.)
-[X] Cost: 1 Campaign + 1 Pataki action
(Reasoning: let's bite the bullet and get him ready for this. We're surging pretty decently this week, and this meeting may well win us Nevada, so it takes priority, especially this early in the game...)
CAMPAIGN ACTIONS:
[X] 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.)
-[X] Bush
[X] Money makes the (political) world go round! You've been burning through your cash reserves like fucking crazy. You can't keep this spending pattern up for much longer, so clearly what you need to do is hit up the good old fundraising circuit. Get some more raw cash injected into the campaign! (Cost: Free. Chance of Success: 60% Result: +Unknown amount of K. Possible major fundraiser contacted. Specify State)
-[X] New York
[X] Money makes the (political) world go round! You've been burning through your cash reserves like fucking crazy. You can't keep this spending pattern up for much longer, so clearly what you need to do is hit up the good old fundraising circuit. Get some more raw cash injected into the campaign! (Cost: Free. Chance of Success: 60% Result: +Unknown amount of K. Possible major fundraiser contacted. Specify State)
-[X] Connecticut
(Reasoning:
RESEARCH TEAM: Pick Three.
[X] Hiring janitors. Harry has some ideas about tightening up security around the office. That starts with hiring a couple of new staff to clean out the office at night. After all, big office like yours needs some cleaning staff! Nobody questions the people emptying the bins at midnight, if they wear the right uniform, after all. (Cost: 10k recruitment per team. 6k per team per turn.)
[X] Infiltrators Infiltrating. Well, the upgrades have cost a pretty fucking penny, but Harry assures you he is confident that now things are fixed up in HQ, he can co-ordinate infiltration efforts much more effectively.(Cost: 12k Chance of Success: 75% Time to Completion: Two Weeks Result: Information on a specific campaign gained. Specify Candidate. 25% of failure being negated.)
-[X] Target: Chris Christie
[X] Improving State Polling. Harry reckons with his office expanded, and with some more staff, he can really make a go at tidying up your private polling in New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada. It wouldn't even be super expensive. allegedly. (Cost: 10k Time to Completion: 2 turns Result: Polling staff expanded further. State polls improved.)
(Reasoning: deeply displeased that we can't engage in actual opposition research, or that 'national polling' is needed to do it well. We can't afford national polling at the moment, which is why we need to emphasize fundraising for the next few turns, so we can afford to keep this party going. State polling, otoh, should help considerably. I was persuaded to target Christie instead of Cruz for our infiltration attempt -- especially since Christie is an attack dog, and we need a way to blunt his attacks when he inevitably comes after us. Rubio is more peaceable -- more charismatic, but less effective on the attack, so we don't need to worry about him as a short-term threat. That's why I replaced the 'infiltrate Rubio' action with 'secure our offices' against rival infiltration.)
(All that said, we need opposition research, and I mean actual research. For one thing, conducting oppo-research on your own candidate is the most reliable way of seeing what's out there and what our competitors will attack us with down the road (which is why self-directed oppo-research is a staple of modern campaigns). In addition, we need to dig up dirt on Trump is we want to have any hope of scuttling his campaign -- infiltration to pick up his tactics won't do that for us, since Trump has barely any infrastructure to infiltrate or pre-planned tactics to pick up.).
THE A-LIST: Pick One
[X] Senate. Where the big decisions are made. Partly, you want him to focus here because most people only care about the senate, and partly, it is because it is much, much easier to co-ordinate in the short and long term. (Ralph Diammetra and the A-List team will focus on scoping out the senate races for A-list candidates and potential Pataki allies)
(Reasoning: hopefully we'll get a chance to add a second 'focus' later in the campaign. I'm pretty torn on this one, but was persuaded by the Senate text "much, much easier to coordinate." That's huge -- this is a major initiative, with little precedent and virtually no established infrastructure. If the 'Senate' is the easy-mode (high profile) tack, then let's do that first before we enter 'hard mode' nitty-gritty stuff later).
PATAKI ACTIONS:
[X] Prep for the plank launch. You've been talking with Neil, and while you are fairly confident George is fired up enough, it couldn't hurt to have him and Neil go over the routine more than just a handful of times. You can even get some of the interns and staffers to roleplay hecklers and such. I mean, this is a university crowd, and George is a republican.
[X] Meeting Bob and Sue. George is going to be busy flying to Kansas and then DC to meet up with potential endorsers. The big ones. Robert Dole and Susan Collins. Hopefully, this goes well. LOCKED ACTION.
[X] Storming the Ranch. It's about time George visited Nevada. It'd be good to familiarise him with the heat for when he visits for the fry up in two weeks. Can't afford to fuck that up, after all.
(Reasoning: meeting with the two endorsers is locked. Our next biggest priority is making sure this week's plank release goes smoothly, especially since we're getting Neil deGrasse Tyson's endorsement at the same time. Let's make sure we nail it. I'm somewhat torn for our third action of the week. I've tentatively decided on dropping by Nevada -- the text indicates it will boost our chance of success when Pataki meets Mr. Laxalt, which is easily the most important event we can look forward to since it'd lock up Nevada. I'm willing to change my mind if someone feels particularly strongly -- it might be good to barnstorm in New Hampshire or South Carolina to boost our post-debate momentum. I'd also be curious to see if we could send Pataki after donors directly).
LIBBY PATAKI ACTIONS: Pick One.
[X] Twitterstorm. Libby did a damn good job on twitter during the debate. Pulled no punches, and helped reinforce you during the (very bad showing) against Rand. Maybe just have her accompany George on the trail and tweet about goings on? (Cost: Free Chance of Success: 65% Result: Libby keeps up your Twitter-based momentum.)
(Reasoning: we desperately need more money, but fundraising directly only gives us a 50-50 chance. We could also send Libby out to campaign, to boost our momentum and gain more money, but I'm inclined to go with the action that doesn't cost anything. Using Libby for twitter wars should help keep up our online momentum, and give us a go-to respondent for Trump's latest gaffe).
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Stealthy
Reverently Irreverent
- Location
- Roaming
So preliminary thoughts on our options this turn:
Hungary
I mean. I think the difference is trivial here. Save ourselves the stress and let George do it? One less interlude for Karvoka to get swamped with. And less political implications for looking less official.
Ayotte Endorsement
Fuck if I know. When are the fenceposts we're talking about here? Like, is she asking for next week or next month or November or what?
Interviews
Alright, big risk here is if the gun question comes back up. It's a weak point and, as the only notable hit on Pataki at the debate, it's one that's talkable. We used Fareed Zakaria before to duck controversy, but I don't think we need to do that again. Kurtz hosts a media criticism program, so I'm sure at some point we could use that program (may actually be a good fit for Laxalt to be Laxalt), but for now it's useless. Beyond that, it's mostly a target audience thing. Al Punto's target audience is obvious. I'd advise against Inside Politics, because Meet the Press and Fox News Sunday are both better choices for the Sunday Talk Show slot. We should probably take one of the Fox News anchors (Kelly or Wallace). Unless we have anything that'll resonate particularly well with an anchor or program (the Trump/Kelly debacle is actually a good one), I'm thinking we do one Sunday Show and one Not.
Sunday Show: Meet the Press with Chuck Todd (NBC), or Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace (FOX)
Second Slot: Megyn Kelly (FOX), or Rachel Maddow (MSNBC)
For the sake of hitting that base, I'm suggesting we pick Kelly over Maddow. Wallace will also, likewise, hit the base better than Chuck Todd, though Meet the Press is still a good show to go on later. Still leaning towards double FOX here. Because of the collapse of the frontrunners and our good debate performance, we want to translate as much of that as we can into votes before Rubio can lock it up (we've got limited overlap with Cruz), and so hitting the primary voter base is important.
Neil is a good topic of conversation. The Pledge can be a trap topic, because then we're talking about the debate and oh hey so what about that gun thing? But like hell are you gonna tie an interview about Space into Guns. Should be easy for Kelly, who I imagine will come after the endorsement (?), but idk about Wallace. I'd rather not talk about Neil before the announcement. The more surprising the more coverage, and the more we'll disrupt everybody else's attempts at news cycles.
Our Editorial
Lacking the Des Moines Register or the Manchester Union-Leader, we may as well strike at our hometown some more. I mean, it's either LVRJ/LVS, or go national with something like the Post. Good Nevada numbers can help with Laxalt, so maybe we hit LV with something relevant.
Research Actions
Improving State Polling seems a straightforward pick. Disagree on infiltrating Rubio and especially Cruz. Wary on it in general given our history on the matter. We can't think purely offense anymore. We're a frontrunner, we need Defense. Hire the Janitors.
A-List
Here's the deal about Congress in 2016: It's a lot of GOP Defense. Republicans really only had one good pickup opportunity in the Senate and that was Nevada. The only Democrats up for reelection in this cycle are the ones that the GOP couldn't unseat in 2010, which says something. Then the House is the House with an already large GOP majority. So with this project we're looking at some (difficult) pickup opportunities, defending friendly incumbents like Ayotte, and replacing retiring officials with our preferred candidates. Maybe we'll find one or two Walker-Level repulsive Republicans to endorse a primary challenger against, but that's not a focus of the campaign. So gotta keep that in mind here.
Laxalt
Ugh. So. This is an important meeting. But by prepping this week, that means George can only barnstorm in one state, given that we're locked into meeting with Collins and Dole, and we should really prep for the Plank Launch. And I don't care if we have the vacation coming up, let's not give Peter a heart attack. Paul Laxalt is time sensitive, but Walker's corpse is moreso.
Campaign Actions
Fundraise obviously. Then steal Endorsements. Don't start running newspaper advertisements yet. It's a running cost thing and it's still only August. It's a good six months until Iowa. Soon, though. We could really use a better cash infrastructure. Not picky on if we double down on Endorsements or Fundraising.
Pataki Actions
Locked into the Dole and Collins meetings. Definitely prep for the Plank Launch. Then two barnstorming. New Hampshire wants the attention. Gotta bask in the glory of our debate performance and how they loved us. Then it's Nevada or Iowa. We're gonna be in Nevada the next two weeks (because yes, we're sending him there well ahead of the Laxalt meeting), so I figure let's give Iowa the Pataki touch.
Totally Wasn't About to Forget About Libby
idk. Twitter or campaign with George in New Hampshire. Not picky.
Hungary
I mean. I think the difference is trivial here. Save ourselves the stress and let George do it? One less interlude for Karvoka to get swamped with. And less political implications for looking less official.
Ayotte Endorsement
Fuck if I know. When are the fenceposts we're talking about here? Like, is she asking for next week or next month or November or what?
Interviews
Alright, big risk here is if the gun question comes back up. It's a weak point and, as the only notable hit on Pataki at the debate, it's one that's talkable. We used Fareed Zakaria before to duck controversy, but I don't think we need to do that again. Kurtz hosts a media criticism program, so I'm sure at some point we could use that program (may actually be a good fit for Laxalt to be Laxalt), but for now it's useless. Beyond that, it's mostly a target audience thing. Al Punto's target audience is obvious. I'd advise against Inside Politics, because Meet the Press and Fox News Sunday are both better choices for the Sunday Talk Show slot. We should probably take one of the Fox News anchors (Kelly or Wallace). Unless we have anything that'll resonate particularly well with an anchor or program (the Trump/Kelly debacle is actually a good one), I'm thinking we do one Sunday Show and one Not.
Sunday Show: Meet the Press with Chuck Todd (NBC), or Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace (FOX)
Second Slot: Megyn Kelly (FOX), or Rachel Maddow (MSNBC)
For the sake of hitting that base, I'm suggesting we pick Kelly over Maddow. Wallace will also, likewise, hit the base better than Chuck Todd, though Meet the Press is still a good show to go on later. Still leaning towards double FOX here. Because of the collapse of the frontrunners and our good debate performance, we want to translate as much of that as we can into votes before Rubio can lock it up (we've got limited overlap with Cruz), and so hitting the primary voter base is important.
Neil is a good topic of conversation. The Pledge can be a trap topic, because then we're talking about the debate and oh hey so what about that gun thing? But like hell are you gonna tie an interview about Space into Guns. Should be easy for Kelly, who I imagine will come after the endorsement (?), but idk about Wallace. I'd rather not talk about Neil before the announcement. The more surprising the more coverage, and the more we'll disrupt everybody else's attempts at news cycles.
Our Editorial
Lacking the Des Moines Register or the Manchester Union-Leader, we may as well strike at our hometown some more. I mean, it's either LVRJ/LVS, or go national with something like the Post. Good Nevada numbers can help with Laxalt, so maybe we hit LV with something relevant.
Research Actions
Improving State Polling seems a straightforward pick. Disagree on infiltrating Rubio and especially Cruz. Wary on it in general given our history on the matter. We can't think purely offense anymore. We're a frontrunner, we need Defense. Hire the Janitors.
A-List
Here's the deal about Congress in 2016: It's a lot of GOP Defense. Republicans really only had one good pickup opportunity in the Senate and that was Nevada. The only Democrats up for reelection in this cycle are the ones that the GOP couldn't unseat in 2010, which says something. Then the House is the House with an already large GOP majority. So with this project we're looking at some (difficult) pickup opportunities, defending friendly incumbents like Ayotte, and replacing retiring officials with our preferred candidates. Maybe we'll find one or two Walker-Level repulsive Republicans to endorse a primary challenger against, but that's not a focus of the campaign. So gotta keep that in mind here.
Laxalt
Ugh. So. This is an important meeting. But by prepping this week, that means George can only barnstorm in one state, given that we're locked into meeting with Collins and Dole, and we should really prep for the Plank Launch. And I don't care if we have the vacation coming up, let's not give Peter a heart attack. Paul Laxalt is time sensitive, but Walker's corpse is moreso.
Campaign Actions
Fundraise obviously. Then steal Endorsements. Don't start running newspaper advertisements yet. It's a running cost thing and it's still only August. It's a good six months until Iowa. Soon, though. We could really use a better cash infrastructure. Not picky on if we double down on Endorsements or Fundraising.
Pataki Actions
Locked into the Dole and Collins meetings. Definitely prep for the Plank Launch. Then two barnstorming. New Hampshire wants the attention. Gotta bask in the glory of our debate performance and how they loved us. Then it's Nevada or Iowa. We're gonna be in Nevada the next two weeks (because yes, we're sending him there well ahead of the Laxalt meeting), so I figure let's give Iowa the Pataki touch.
Totally Wasn't About to Forget About Libby
idk. Twitter or campaign with George in New Hampshire. Not picky.
Good points all around. In that case, perhaps focus on Trump's gaffe (and our debate/post-debate attacks on him) in the Wallace interview, while focusing on NdGT with Kelly? If the timing works out, I'll change my Plan to reflect this.
...That's a fair point. Mostly I picked 'infiltrate' because we didn't have an option for actual oppo-research. The 'janitors' will become necessary soon for our own security. However, two points: they are a big (and recurring) expense, which would make it more difficult for us to afford the 'national polling' asap. Frankly, a much bigger worry for 'defense' would be what other campaign's are doing with their oppo-research against us. We need to enable that oppo-research ASAP, not only to wage war on Trump, but to investigate ourselves and see if there are any skeletons in the closet that might be used against us. Tactics are one thing, but we can survive a bad debate or two. We wouldn't survive a scandal of the WEDCgate sort, and we don't know if Pataki has anything like that in his closet.
In general: opposition research is an absolute necessity for any campaign, and should have been a priority for our research team from Day 1. The fact that we haven't even been given the chance to do any opposition research is appalling. I'm not sure whether to blame Harry Enten (as a proper Watsonian) or whether to blame Karvoka for poor quest decision, because that is a huge oversight.
Interesting. You're right that this is a troublesome election. Frankly, I'm not entirely sure I understand what the 'A List' is doing for us -- we want to reform DC, and we want to prop up Pataki-friendly faces in other races to support our campaign. Fair enough -- focusing on the Senate is the obvious choice. OTOH, we want to reform the GOP, by taking out bad Republicans thru primary challengers. But in that case, focusing on the Senate would be 'hard mode', since Senators are so much more established with political connections, donors, etc. Some clarity here would be helpful.
...We can do that? I mean, seriously, we can double up on endorsements or fundraising? Because I'd willingly give up the twitter war as long as we can prioritize acquiring more donors. We need money badly for that national polling, so...
@The Karvoka Man: can you confirm whether we're allowed to double-down on a single Campaign Action like that?
...I think I misread Libby's twitterstorm as a 'free' action, rather than as a 'free' cost. Especially if we're dropping George's twitter war in order to focus on endorsements/donors, using Libby to maintain our Twitter momentum is a great idea. All the more because it's free.
EDIT: also, given Trump's gaffe this weekend, it might be best to have Libby take the fore and attack him for it.
Victor Orbán is a right-wing PM who is known for 'soft Euroskepticism' -- basically, he likes the common market (though he is slightly protectionist), but doesn't like the whole 'let's throw open our borders to anyone from the Middle East'. He's probably 'far right' for a European party, but he'd be comfortably centrist for the US, so his endorsement probably would help us with both the right & center. It's also give us a basis for taking about 'illegal immigration' that keeps us distinct from Trump (and gives us an entree to talk about our immigration minor plank later on...).
Another point of interest: per Wikipedia, Orbán seems to be treated in the press as a Trump-like figure who became mainstream. This might be a danger (because meeting with him might 'legitimize' Trump-ism as a political movement), but might also be an opportunity (because if a Trump-like figure is endorsing Pataki, then maybe Trump's supporters might give Pataki a second look, especially if we hit Trump hard for gaffes and blunders).
We should definitely talk to Pataki about how this meet-and-greet would look, though. We don't want our campaign to be associated with 'extremism', however the media defines it. We should make sure to check with the Hungarian embassy about the specific timing of the visit (normally state visits take a while to organize, so it should be at least a month down the road, if not longer).
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- Location
- Europe
I'm not sure why you seem to think focusing on the Senate is the obvious choice here. They're the ultimate bunch of insiders with only a couple of people like Cruz sticking out like a sore thumb. Why would they want to join forces with Pataki in any meaningful way? Sure, you might be able to pick up a couple of struggling Republican Senators but they're usually not the kind of people that we want to be associated with (Ayotte is an exeption here) since they're unpopular for a reason. Cozying up to the Washington elite isn't going to do our reputation as an anti-establishment candidate any good and I honestly don't think those Senators will be able to help our campaign enough to return the "investment" we place in them.
You're missing an action here. At least I think so. We get to pick two actions, while one action is locked. Not pick one action with one action locked.
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Stealthy
Reverently Irreverent
- Location
- Roaming
We get 4 Pataki actions, but one is already locked in, so we pick 3. We get 3 campaign actions as well. Laxalt Prep takes one of each unless we stress ourselves (?). That leaves 2 per if we do Laxalt this week. The editorial and both interviews are free and don't count.
If our goal with the A-List is to support & campaign alongside other likeminded candidates, then the Senate would be the obvious choice because they are much higher profile. This is also easier to coordinate (less expensive, fewer actions required) and more likely to see positive benefits for our campaign.
If our goal with the A-List is to replace current Republicans with like-minded candidates, then we should choose the House because Representatives are much less entrenched and we'd actually be able to make headway. However, focusing on the House would also limit the positive effects of our A-List actions, since the House is much lower-profile than the Senate. The House would also take much more effort to coordinate -- requiring more money + more actions to see progress.
I think you're right, though I'd ask @The Karvoka Man to confirm. I had misread the Pataki actions as "3 total, one of which was locked" rather than "choose 3 + 1 locked in."
Also, Karvoka: can you clarify if "Debate prep" and "Issue familiarity" are still options?
Both attributes decay at "-5 per week" and we barely managed to upgrade them before the debate, so they're currently at 5/00 and 10/100. That being the case, we need to practice debate now, to keep it from dropping from 4 to 3.
Also, I'm wondering if our 'Prep for Plank Launch' would count as 'Issue Familiarity', since part of the prep is going over the specifics of the plank with Neil deGrasse Tyson...
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- I think somewhere. I might be nowhere though
It's this. I got the same thing confused in an earlier turn in the same way you are confusing it.
KarvokaQueen
Queen of the Coffee Cups
- Location
- City of Coffee, Upside-down land
Yes. Obviously Peter is going to pump up the debate plank. This is not an option because it is going be done no matter what. You don't get an option for anything but preparing Pataki for it.
They will become options again once Pataki has finished unwinding from the debate.
No.
It's not.
[] Infiltrators Infiltrating. Well, the upgrades have cost a pretty fucking penny, but Harry assures you he is confident that now things are fixed up in HQ, he can co-ordinate infiltration efforts much more effectively.(Cost: 12k Chance of Success: 75% Time to Completion: Two Weeks Result: Information on a specific campaign gained. Specify Candidate. 25% of failure being negated.)
THIS is your opposition research.
I think what Publicola's saying is that there should be a chance to do... well, actual research. Study opponents' histories, see if they have any skeletons, etc. No real risk and potentially better results.
Thanks for clarifying.
Okay, I'll change my Plan. Does anyone have suggestions for our other campaign action?
Nope. Infiltration is one part of it, but even combined with 'trackers' (who keep tabs on where an opposing candidate goes, who he meets with, what he says, etc) HUMINT accounts for less than half of what oppo-research actually does. The much bigger part of opposition research is research.
Per Wikipedia:
Given the fact that we have regular poker games with Nate Silver and have Harry Enten working for us as our Director of Research, our data-mining operation should be absolutely cream-of-the-crop, despite starting out as a third-tier candidate.
This is especially vital because this, more than anything else, is why and how the Republican party establishment failed to prevent the rise of Donald Trump. Even if they'd infiltrated every inch of his campaign, they would have gotten minimal benefit from it because Trump's campaign was shooting 'from the hip' the entire election season. Their real failure was on the research side -- they didn't see the "grab 'em by the p****" video that NBC released, or the Howard Stern radio interviews in which Trump cheerfully agrees that his daughter is "a piece of a**" or brags that as the owner of Miss Teen USA he gets to walk around backstage and look at the naked underage girls, or the (alleged) video of Trump using the n-word on the set of The Apprentice, or any of the thousand other videos and oppo dumps that came out this past October.
Seriously, there was dire need for decent opposition research this election year, and we're perfectly situated to do the most damage -- not because we know OOC that the other Republicans failed in this or because we know that the oppo dumps are out there, but because our Research Director is the guy you call for data-mining.
Exactly.
KarvokaQueen
Queen of the Coffee Cups
- Location
- City of Coffee, Upside-down land
Oh, right. Sorry, still shaking off sleep.
That will come up in the near future. How, I don't want to say, though.
As for why it isn't right now? Data-mining is easier when the person you are mining has a long and established history in the public eye. Peter runs _congressional_ campaigns. His idea of op-research is finding out the infrastructural strengths and weaknesses of his opponent, and subverting them with information he gets from it.
He has never really done data-mining operations before.
That will come up in the near future. How, I don't want to say, though.
As for why it isn't right now? Data-mining is easier when the person you are mining has a long and established history in the public eye. Peter runs _congressional_ campaigns. His idea of op-research is finding out the infrastructural strengths and weaknesses of his opponent, and subverting them with information he gets from it.
He has never really done data-mining operations before.
Such as being a New York billionaire and 'media celebrity', who produced and starred in his own long-standing TV show?
I get that Laxalt wouldn't be as familiar with data-mining, but what is Harry Enten's excuse?
Likewise: what about our SuperPACs? One of the biggest recent trends in US politics has been 'outsourcing' oppo-research to private groups, so they can pursue more scandalous avenues without blowing back on the campaign itself. Even if Harry Enten hasn't been able to conduct such research on his own, surely he would have told/asked one of our affiliated SuperPACs to start digging independently?
(...dammit. I've been working on a much longer info-dump post on major donors, and now it looks like it's been eaten by my computer. Time to find all those old tabs again...)