BACKGROUND ON ST. ANDRE'S FORM OF LOCAL GOVERNANCE
The City of St. Andre operates under a council-manager form of government.
Its elected legislative body is called the St. Andre Jurat, composed of City Aldermen. The Jurat is responsible for the legislative function of the city like establishing policy, passing local ordinances, voting appropriations. The legislative body, which is voted into office by public elections, appoints a professional manager to oversee the administrative operations, implement its policies, and advise it. The city manager position in this form of municipal government is similar to that of corporate chief executive officer (CEO), providing professional management to a company's board of directors.
The position of Mayor is the elected executive, treated as an at-large council member with some executive functions. The Mayor appoints and dismisses department heads with the consent of the Jurat. The City Budget is prepared by the Mayor and his office, with heavy input from the City Manager. Before a draft budget can be submitted to the Jurat for approval, the City Manager has to provide approval of the draft.
ELECTION PROCESS
This election will be simulated by myself, and everyone who is a Natopian citizen may participate. The election will have three stages: political party registrations, campaigning, and election.
1. Political Party Registrations
Any Natopian citizen may create a political party and candidate to contest the election. There will be election sign-up threads that will be ready for people to register their political party or movement. The form is not finalized and will be posted later today. The form will allow you to register the political party - it will ask for a name, name of party leader and candidates, a brief manifesto or statement of beliefs, and will have a small political quiz that will help me place the party's position on local issues that matter. Each political party can receive a significant boost in its poll numbers by posting particular details about its candidate for Mayor - background, pet issue and at least one positive and one negative trait. (For example, you may choose for the negative trait to be a "skeleton in the closet" (see list of traits below), which can increase their likelihood to get elected, but at the same time can increase the chance of a scandal if the negative trait becomes public, which may happen during the campaign or after, and hurt the individual's public perception.)
Along with the political party registration thread, I will be releasing early polling details to give you a sense of the electorate and its concerns.
The political party registration stage would last for at least a week. After that, it will progress to the next stage: an election.
2. Campaigning
There's two possible activities in this stage:
- Only residents of the Most Serene Union and members of the Imperial Government can participate in this activity - residents of the MSU or members of the Imperial Government (Empress, Clergy, Chancellor, members of the Frenzy) can endorse a particular candidate. Its effects will be determined via coin toss. The toss will decide if the endorsement helped boost the political party (heads for yes, tails for no). If the endorsement helped, then a number randomizer (between 1 and 5) will determine by how much. Each endorsement will be capped at 5% poll boost. No endorsement will have a negative effect on any political party. The Prince of the Most Serene Union cannot and will not make any endorsements.
- Anyone who created a party and candidate for the first stage can participate in this activity: You may post your ideas to win votes. Be creative. Try rallies, ads, placards or posters, scripts for mainstreeting or doorknocking, stump speeches... roll out a campaign! The higher quality your work is, the more it will impact the race.
This stage will last for a week from the end of stage 1.
3. Election
After stage 2 has ended, I will proceed to post the election results and swear in the winner of the election.
LIST OF NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE TRAITS
Positive
Average Joe
Qualities: Folksy, down-to-earth, unpretentious, a man/woman of the common people, the kind of person voters would like to have a beer with.
Boy/Girl Scout
Qualities: Squeaky clean, ethical, honest, upright, virtuous.
Bridge Builder
Qualities: Bipartisan, agreeable, creates compromise, a negotiator / deal broker.
Bulldog
Qualities: Aggressive, brazen, outspoken, pulls no punches, frank, critical.
Grassroots Organizer
Qualities: Effective manager of personnel, rallies other people to action, good with logistics.
Maverick
Characteristics: Independent thinker, willing to buck party, nonconformist, dissenter.
Orator
Characteristics: Eloquent, persuasive, inspiring, articulate.
Policy Wonk: (area)
Characteristics: Highly credible, knowledgeable, and focused in a given issue area. Applicants should specify which one issue they think applies to them.
Workhorse
Characteristics: Active, tireless, industrious, takes on extra work (in-character).
Negative
Dirtbag
Characteristics: Corrupt, underhanded, dishonest, untrustworthy, unethical.
Elitist
Characteristics: Pretentious, snobby, high-brow, out of touch with the common man, of the wine-and-cheese crowd.
Empty Suit
Characteristics: Inactive, unknown, do-nothing, powerless, ineffective.
Flip-Flopper
Characteristics: Hypocritical, changes positions suddenly or is unclear about what they are in the first place, promise breaker.
Gaffe-Prone
Characteristics: Commits blunders when speaking, inarticulate, unintelligible, puts foot in mouth.
Loose Cannon
Characteristics: Unstable, short tempered, excitable, impulsive, hot-headed, high-strung.
Partisan
Characteristics: Loyal to the party (to a fault), closed-minded, biased, uncompromising.
Skeletons in Closet
Characteristics: Indicates some sort of personal scandal in the character's past, the severity of which are determined by the administrator of the simulated election.
Government Insider
Characteristics: A member of the "establishment", a career politician, often beholden to special interests.
Wingnut
Characteristics: Ideologically extreme, espouses outrageous positions that are far out of line with the mainstream.