Join the new world

27 September 2009, Day 677 of the New World.



This adventure started about three weeks ago while I was on the clock fashioning a pistol holster out of a lump of iron. I came to reflect on what I was doing in the eWorld and what my purpose might be. Each day I was working, contributing to the economy, and fighting. My fights might not be making much difference, but at least they were going where they should be going and were better than doing nothing. I began to think about what else I could offer the country, and I began to sincerely think I had the potential to do more.

I joined a political party to see if I could find a way to be more active in my nation. At first, this changed little in my life. Then, just as I was thinking about taking action, I received a letter from the party president of America’s Advancement Party, Mercurius100, asking for interest in running for Congress. Just the hour before, I had been researching the feasibility of a congressional bid.

Within a day, I became more active in AAP and offered my name for the AAP ticket somewhere. To my surprise, they actually offered to put my name on a ballot. Back then we still had to deal with a wide region of the country under Russian-control – a region which eventually stretched to the Gulf of Mexico and Wyoming. Colombia was also invading, and we were expecting an attack on Florida any day now. That attack never came, which was to my satisfaction as I left for Arizona to declare my candidacy.

I had intelligence that Kazeal, who was elected to represent Arizona in May, June, and July 2009 (USWP in May, then UIP in June and July) would not be running for re-election, and the Grand Canyon State was guaranteed for no one. [Kazeal actually did run for, and win, a seat in the 22nd Congress, representing Connecticut.] My opposition would be Emperor Rick, who knew a thing or two about running for Congress in Arizona (drawing 12 votes in May 2009), and had the endorsement of two of the big five parties. The situation did not look promising.

Adding to the already formidable political wall, America’s Advancement Party had never won in Arizona. The party had only run candidates twice – Ballman in July 2009 and Corroded in February 2009.

Shortly after I left Florida, the weapons company I worked for decided to close down. The manager was nice enough to give me a severance package of two weapons and an explanation. As I would not be fighting from Arizona, I decided to pass those weapons off to people who would help reclaim New Jersey. I was employed by a Polish-based weapons conglomerate but eventually laid off there as well.



During my time in Arizona on the campaign trail, I got a lot of mileage out of my newspaper, the “Paladin’s Honor”. I had long considered starting one but had no real purpose to doing so. A bid for Congress was great motivation, so even if I did not win the race I would have accomplished something. I was reading the news more extensively as well, including political platforms, and I quickly discovered the platform I felt most strongly about – infrastructure. I had read many congressional platforms, even from otherwise good candidates, that would be detrimental to our country, and began to felt that congress needed (or at least would benefit from) my insights on this issue.

I did some war coverage while battles were raging in North America as well. These were rewarding to do because the news was good news. I covered Iran’s defeat in Yukon, Iran’s defeat in the Northwest Territories, and the United States’s attack on and victory in [1] [2] in East Coast states.

The American mediaplace is extremely crowded. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, because Department of Defense orders and Presidential addresses need to get publicity, so I kept my journalistic ambitions light. I probably won’t be a media mogul. After I published my first couple of articles, I discovered that I had ten subscriptions. I was ecstatic; after expecting only two or three people to have found my work worthy enough to click the small “Subscribe” button, ten people had. Growth in this number continued to surprise me. When I estimated it to be 20, it was 35. Today, when I estimated it to be 40, I discovered that it was 58 subscriptions. Of course, fifty-eight is a small number compared to the American media giants, but I am quite pleased by it and very grateful to the people who found my writing insightful enough to subscribe to. Currently, this publication is the 269th most subscribed in the country, which fills me with pride.

As election day drew closer, I was again caught in a moment of introspection. Even if the results were not in my favor, I had accomplished one of my major congressional goals – I had become more involved in the eWorld. I had made many friends along the way, and felt more a ‘part’ of my country than I was as a small economic and military blip.

I was awake when election day began, talking with one of my constituents. The polls did not actually open when the new day began, so I waited for them to appear. When I was finally able to see them, about 50 minutes into the day, I was overcome with shock. Not only was I behind already, but my opponent was in third place in the nation (picture). I slept, but it was not a restful sleep, knowing how the campaign was going.

I awoke early and immediately checked the polls. It was a little under six hours since I had done so, and the situation greeting me was considerably more favorable. I had accumulated four votes and a lead of one. I continued the track the Arizona race and several others throughout the day.


Click for full size.

For understandable reasons, I was considerably less anxious in the middle of the day. At 1350 hrs, I had even edged my way into the top six candidates in the country (picture). Much like my number of newspaper subscribes, I was absolutely taken back by the number of people voting for me. I can not express my gratitude enough, but I hope to start by fulfilling my campaign promises and being an active and dedicated Congressman.

The final hours of the day were cause for concern similarly to the earliest hours. I had been watching other races across the country and had prepared an algorithm to predict the actions of the Conservative Party. Their ticket was not leading in any states, and I imagined that they had a mobile voting force ready to dispatch to whichever states they could win. I was predicting California early, but as the Green candidate pulled away that option become unfeasible. Vermont was another likely target, but the Conservative candidate failed to keep pace with the candidate from America’s Advancement Party. The final two races predicted by my algorithm were Arizona and North Dakota. North Dakota would have taken fewer votes to flip from the United States Workers Party candidate in the lead, but a member of party leadership was running in Arizona. I felt like a bull’s-eye had been painted on my humble bid to serve my country.

There was little more I could do in the day, so I went to Winnipeg and fought the Huns with some weapons I had on hand before moving to California to try out the new hospital everyone’s been raving about. I had been out in Arizona for quite some time, without even a Q1 house. The desert was lonely, and my country needed me elsewhere, back with the rest of the fortress.

The polls closed with no more than a trickle of CvP supporters moving to the state. The last two votes went to Emperor Rick, and I was left holding my breath until the last moment. The aftermath did reveal that Arizona had been the target of CvP movement effort during the final hour(s) (picture). The coverage of the election I was watching cut out entirely as day 676 began, as had happened the day before. My lead of 13-9 was maintained when the results finally did display, proclaiming me the official candidate and my three opponents “wildcard” candidates. I wasn’t worried about the election glitch; I knew what eRep meant. It has been well covered in media and is old news at this point, but I might as well post the photographic evidence I have of it for posterity.
Four winners in Arizona
All members of the 22nd Congress - all candidates

I worked, fought in Manitoba again, and slept.

The next day, the glitch had been corrected for all but two states. I had a list of proposals to sort through, most of which were proposed by Congressmen who held that title erroneously for a few hours. In keeping with my commitment to transparency, I will be posting my official voting record some other time.


Romania

Our friends in Bucharest proposed a renewal of mutual protection pact. The first real vote of my first term in the United States Congress was to approve this pact.



Noroc!
Cheers!

I checked in to the official Congressional Caucus moments after the polls closed, before the glitch was fully realized, and signed up for congressional committees the next morning. It should be no surprise that my first choice of committee was infrastructure; we are still waiting on official assignments.

There are many people to thank for this victory, and I pledge to not disappoint them. Andoryil was my campaign assistant and has been immensely helpful. Many thanks go out to him for the great job he did, and it was especially important as this was my first time up for election. I also thank Lewis Clark for the support and official endorsement he provided. While many of his party’s votes went to help in North Korea instead of Arizona, the support matters to me a great deal. James C. Geldens, the United States Ambassador to Australia, was also very supportive and helped educate me on U.S dealings with foreign countries. More thanks go out to Ingo Castilho, press director of the Eagle Times. R3dko, the Libertarian candidate in Hawai’i, who left partisan politics behind, was also very encouraging. He seemed to have his ear to the ground everywhere and provided a reassuring voice during the tumultuous final half-hour. Many of my supporters were members of the Libertarian Party, the Democratic Party, or the United States Workers Party, and I would like to thank everyone who came together to pick the best candidate instead of simply obeying party lines.

Along the way, I unwittingly became a mentor for two or three citizens of voting age. This was another point I would have counted as a victory even if I had lost the election. I feel that the small amount of effort I put into helping some confused citizens elucidate the mechanics of their eWorld could pay off many times in better citizens for America.

To everyone who voted for me, you have my extreme gratitude. To the people who wanted to vote for me but served the needs of our allies in North Korea instead, I also thank you. Winning by an extra one to five votes in Arizona was nowhere near as important as contributing to the preservation of an ally.

I got together with Jude Connors, the congressman from New Mexico who won under the AAP ticket, for beers in California. We had been watching each other’s campaigns, and it was very rewarding when we both won. His publication can be found here. Congressman Connors is a member of the Socialist Freedom Party, and I received an endorsement from the Democratic Party. The leadership of these parties are in stark opposition, but that hasn’t seemed to matter at all in our corner of the country. I have been eagerly meeting all the fellow congressmen I can since the election.

In other news, one of my other first acts as Congressman (aside from signing in, voting yay to a Romanian MPP, and signing up for a committee) was to establish the local office for the United States Congressional Representatives from Arizona. This facility, where citizens can reach me and be connected to their national government, will be located in Blythe.



Once more, thank you for this opportunity. I look forward to serving Arizona and my country and will not squander this opportunity.



“Ditat Deus”