Join the new world

I have an admission to make, for my first month in eRepublik I was one of those ubiquitous “two clickers”. You know the ones (perhaps you are one of the “ones”, but if that is the case then I doubt you’ll read this anyway as it would involve that extra click to make three). I was fairly comfortable with my two click progress, I had a Hard Worker medal and was working on my second, had trained to “Super Soldier” status and started a newspaper; all in all a fairly comfortable life.

I joined the USWP after researching the different options pretty much just so that I would have another attractive icon at the bottom of my profile when I stopped by to do my two click. I led a pretty mundane eLife, but with an extraordinarily busy RL it worked for me. I never used the decoder, so the real highlight of my daily life was seeing if I could nail 5 supershots at work or in training.

Then I received a PM that rocked my mundane little eLife, the USWP (GoBucks specifically) invited me to run for congress in Oregon (where, unlike many, I have resided my entire eLife, and am likely to continue to do so).

Now that you have too much background, I will get to the point of this series: How I got to Congress, what I experienced, and, most importantly some tips if you are fortunate enough to be elected.

First off, I had a couple of advantages in Oregon, my main competitor NoneSuch (whom I have come to admire greatly) had mentioned in an article (yes, I generally subscribe, or at least read my competitors articles…let’s call that tip #1) that he was running for the express purpose of blocking the election of another candidate, Michael Lewis. Now, to say that campaigning in a state with Mr. Lewis is interesting is to understate the event. However, since Michael Lewis did not receive the endorsement of any of the top five parties, I think NoneSuch did not put the kind of effort into the campaign which would have probably wiped me off the political map.

Additionally, NoneSuch added motivation for me by basically stating, in the same article mentioned above, that with only me and Mr. Lewis as choices, Oregon was in dire need of help (he was right). Thanks to NoneSuch, I was sufficiently pissed at the dis that I dumped my laissez-faire attitude toward the election and began campaigning in earnest.

Although there is a 35 experience point threshold for voting, I went to the Oregon rankings and PM’d every single living resident with at least one experience point personally asking for their vote. Now Oregon is a fairly small state population wise, but that still meant over 90 PMs (which is quite a feat for a two clicker like me). Thus tip #2, I think the PMs are marginally effective in garnering votes, but my party (USWP) was likely the key to my victory…if you choose to PM citizens in your state, aim for those at 30 experience points and above if it is within days of the election.

One other advantage I had was that the congressional election was taking place on Christmas day, I was virtually snowed in on the week leading up to Christmas so I was able to spend quality time learning and campaigning.

In the day of the election, I must have checked the returns 400 times, in Oregon just six votes won in the November election, therefore when I had reached 5 votes I pretty much reached for the bubbly. By the end of the day I had attained 7 votes and a congressional seat.
So to recap the tips so far.

#1. Identify your main competitors and read their articles, there is a wealth onf information regarding their motivation level and following.

#2. Select your party affiliation well, they will be key in the election (both for campaign support and votes) Personally, I suggest USWP to anyone who will listen because, frankly, they gave a sh*t about my future which is more that I can say for some of the other parties and their organization is sterling. There is a reason that they are the largest party, quality leadership.

#3. Be a student of history. Analyze former election results to determine what the likely number of votes will be to succeed, and then get out and ask for those votes; but unless you have time to burn don’t worry about PMing anyone with less than 30xp. I had time to burn, but it did not make any significant difference in the votes.

#4. After you read the articles linked below, post a couple of paragraphs in the eUS forums regarding your positions on various critical topics so that voters can see a link below your name that they will never actually read. I personally think only your competitors actually read the presentations, or eStalkers (the same thing in some cases).

I consider myself enormously fortunate to have been elected to represent the state in which I reside in eRepublik and in RL. I hope this, and the next couple of installments, will help you obtain the same opportunity if that is your yen.

If you are considering running for congress, the following links are mandatory reading. If you are not running for congress the following articles are mandatory reading. And yes, I’m serious, your understanding of eRepublik, in general, will take a quantum leap forward.

Taxation Economics

The Development of War Tactics, Age of v1

Next Installment: My stupid ass mistakes, and how to avoid them.