2018 Presidential Election
- Thread starter Marky Bunny
- Start date
Wednesday September 18th 2019
Latest Gubernatorial Polls 2019
Kentucky
Barrie (R) 54%
Lucas (D) 40%
George (Progressive) 6%
Mississippi
Fisk (D) 55%
Hodder-Shaw (R) 45%
Oregon
Collins (R) 55%
McColl (D) 40%
Kelly (Socialist) 5%
South Carolina
Butler (R) 57%
Singer (D) 43%
Vermont
Lorton (D) 60%
Cleacy (R) 35%
Pollock (Marjuana Party) 5%
Fieldwork from Saturday September 14th to Wednesday September 17th
It also looks like in Oregon Collins is opening up a lead again. The last couple of polls actually had McColl starting to give him a run for his money.
Politico.com
Thursday September 19th 2019
The Labour leadership result and how it effects the race to be the next Conservative Leader and Prime-Minister
There was a massive outpouring of relief at Conservative Central Office last Saturday morning when it was announced that the Labour Party had elected Jack Coll as its new Leader rather than Oliver Kendrick.
The Tory high command where truly scared by a Kendrick leadership "the looks, the youth, the back story, everything about him" an insider told me " we where also worried by how it would look with a 36 year old Leader of the Opposition taking on a near 73 year old Tory PM, it would not have played well". The Tories are clearly happy with a Jack Coll leadership "Don't get me wrong Jack Coll is a decent man, he is in politics for the right reasons, but we know what we are going to get with him, he has been an MP for over twenty years, and a Minister under Green, we can still tie him to that failed Government, and in a General Election he still has a lot to do even to get a majority of just one in the House of Commons" another Party worker said.
The focus is now on when Richard Samuels will stand down as Leader, he will make it to five years in Number Ten in March next year, and he does turn 73 early next June "I think the PM wants to have served at least five years, and it's going to be either 2020 or 2021, giving his successor a good run into the next general election" another source said. The next election would have to be held by September 2023. As for the likely favourites to take over, it is difficult to look past the Home Secretary Michael Duggan, Duggan was of course defeated by Samuels for the leadership in 2015 but he has been a loyal solider and since 2017 Home Secretary. The man he succeeded at the Home Office Nigel Jay is of course out of the House of Commons at the moment as Mayor of London, and he has already said he would seek re-election to that post in 2022, which looks almost certain to be against the man he so narrowly defeated last year, Dominic Eames. The Foreign Secretary Fiona Wallace and Chancellor Kevin Grimes would also likely run, along with a couple of the younger members of the cabinet like Karen Purvis or James Hawthorne. Samuels current deputy Frank Cameron has made it clear he is not interested in getting into the chase for the top job. At the current time the front-runners look likely to be Duggan and Wallace with Grimes the dark horse, depending how the economy does and how it does in dealing with Kendrick as Shadow Chancellor, who seems almost certain to stay in the shadow cabinet once Coll reshuffles it after the party conference.
As for Labour Coll seems to be and indeed campaigned as a "one more heave" candidate rather than "fundamental change" which Kendrick seemed to offer them. Of course you never know as of course as Harold Wilson once said "a week is a long time in politics" but all leadership races and Prime-Minister's are subject to what Harold Macmillan described as "events, dear boy, events". Lets see what events throw up in the next four years.
Thursday September 19th 2019
The Labour leadership result and how it effects the race to be the next Conservative Leader and Prime-Minister
There was a massive outpouring of relief at Conservative Central Office last Saturday morning when it was announced that the Labour Party had elected Jack Coll as its new Leader rather than Oliver Kendrick.
The Tory high command where truly scared by a Kendrick leadership "the looks, the youth, the back story, everything about him" an insider told me " we where also worried by how it would look with a 36 year old Leader of the Opposition taking on a near 73 year old Tory PM, it would not have played well". The Tories are clearly happy with a Jack Coll leadership "Don't get me wrong Jack Coll is a decent man, he is in politics for the right reasons, but we know what we are going to get with him, he has been an MP for over twenty years, and a Minister under Green, we can still tie him to that failed Government, and in a General Election he still has a lot to do even to get a majority of just one in the House of Commons" another Party worker said.
The focus is now on when Richard Samuels will stand down as Leader, he will make it to five years in Number Ten in March next year, and he does turn 73 early next June "I think the PM wants to have served at least five years, and it's going to be either 2020 or 2021, giving his successor a good run into the next general election" another source said. The next election would have to be held by September 2023. As for the likely favourites to take over, it is difficult to look past the Home Secretary Michael Duggan, Duggan was of course defeated by Samuels for the leadership in 2015 but he has been a loyal solider and since 2017 Home Secretary. The man he succeeded at the Home Office Nigel Jay is of course out of the House of Commons at the moment as Mayor of London, and he has already said he would seek re-election to that post in 2022, which looks almost certain to be against the man he so narrowly defeated last year, Dominic Eames. The Foreign Secretary Fiona Wallace and Chancellor Kevin Grimes would also likely run, along with a couple of the younger members of the cabinet like Karen Purvis or James Hawthorne. Samuels current deputy Frank Cameron has made it clear he is not interested in getting into the chase for the top job. At the current time the front-runners look likely to be Duggan and Wallace with Grimes the dark horse, depending how the economy does and how it does in dealing with Kendrick as Shadow Chancellor, who seems almost certain to stay in the shadow cabinet once Coll reshuffles it after the party conference.
As for Labour Coll seems to be and indeed campaigned as a "one more heave" candidate rather than "fundamental change" which Kendrick seemed to offer them. Of course you never know as of course as Harold Wilson once said "a week is a long time in politics" but all leadership races and Prime-Minister's are subject to what Harold Macmillan described as "events, dear boy, events". Lets see what events throw up in the next four years.
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OOC: I honestly don't get what the Tories see is so scary about Kendrick since about half the things they're worried about (youth, sympathetic backstory, contrast with Samuels) they already had to deal with when Benn replaced Miller. If anything, they should be disappointed that Kendrick lost, since he would have been the least-experienced Labour leader in a century and presumably have made more mistakes for Samuels and his successor to pounce on during PMQs and the like, since he's had only three years of frontbench experience.
On an unrelated note, I'm kind of curious as to which sci-fi character we're going to get to join the Ninth Doctor and Obi-Wan Kenobi as a major party leader. Maybe we're going to get the sudden, unexpected return of Sir George Kelvan to replace Samuels?
Thursday, September 19th 2019
Activists, businesses protest Riley's rejection of climate change legislation
Senate Majority Leader Cody Riley (R-AL)'s rejection of climate change legislation passed by the House has angered environmental activists as well as several nationwide businesses who have called the rejection "short-sighted". Appearing on The Five on Fox News yesterday morning, Riley said that the Senate was "not even going to consider" debate on the Clean Fuel For America (CFFA) bill that passed the House by an outsize margin earlier this month. Calling the bill, which among other things, would reward states with bloc grants for shuttering coal-fueled power plants in favor of hydroelectric, wind or solar-fueled plants before 2030, is "big government at its worst", the majority leader said that the Senate would focus instead on energy legislation that was not "top-down", such as legislation proposed by Patrick Stacy (R-TN) and Vic Huntington (D-NV) that would create a federal regulatory system for states to establish state-level carbon taxes.
Climate protesters quickly moved to protest outside of Riley's office at the Russell Senate Building, as well as those of Majority Whip James Lancaster (R-KY), who has accepted millions of dollars in donations from coal executives in each of his reelection campaigns. Several business leaders similarly reacted with disapproval towards Riley's decision, with Andrew Kelly, CEO and founder of the web browser Torch, exemplifying the response from these critics. In a post on his Twitter, Kelly called Riley's decision "short-sighted" and cited the environmental effects of mining and burning coal for fuel and increasing cheapness of renewable fuel sources.
White House Press Secretary Cassie Tatum said President Seaborn was "disappointed" in Riley's decision, and urged the senator to reconsider. House Democrats have been less conciliatory, with Naomi Herrera-Rodriguez (D-NY) saying Riley's decision was "shameful", while Jack Caton (D-CA) described it as a "cowardly". Both Herrera-Rodriguez and Caton were among the 25 House Democrats to have co-sponsored the bill. The CFFA bill passed the House by a 253 to 166 margin, with nearly 40 House Republicans voting in favor.
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Thursday, September 19th 2019
Suspected coup attempt foiled in Equatorial Kundu
Bitanga — The Kundunese military has stopped what many observers say was likely an attempted coup yesterday. Fighting briefly erupted in the capital city of Bitanga yesterday morning, between what appeared to be different military units, before rebelling units surrendered to forces loyal to the government. Around two dozen people are reported to have died, mostly civilians hit in the crossfire, with over 100 more reportedly being treated for wounds in local hospitals.
The West African nation has been wracked by uncertainty since President Uzochi Nzele, under heavy pressure from protesters, announced in July that he would not run for re-election when his current term expires next year. His wife, Adeola Muzenda, is also his vice president in a political alliance that has effectively turned the country into a one-party state. Both Nzele and Muzenda are widely held to be responsible for the genocide against the Induye minority that took place in 2002 and 2003 and have been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity. However, after his return to power in 2005, Nzele has been content to allow remaining Induye to "self-deport" amid officially-sanctioned discrimination, while Muzenda has publicly called for the re-institution of measures that were implemented immediately before the genocide, such as forcing the Induye into concentration camps.
Fractures have appeared in elite Kundunese circles, as Nzele's pending retirement has caused rifts to occur over whether to continue the alliance of the Arkutu Freedom and Arkutu Patriotic parties under Muzenda, to choose a compromise figure to be the next president, or to run an Arkutu Patriotic candidate against Muzenda. International observers say it was these tensions, exacerbated by continuing protests over the country's poor economic straits and rampant corruption, that likely was the root cause of the violence yesterday.
So far, there has been no comment by the Kundunese government on the cause of the fighting, just that "public order in the capital [Bitanga] has been restored".
OOC: I'm probably stepping on Mark's toes here with the second box, but I've gone ahead and made the infobox for the Labour leadership election:
And the round-by-round results that he sent me:
And the round-by-round results that he sent me:
OOC: Might as well reveal that I've made infoboxes for all of TL's UK general elections. Big shout-out to Mark for making PDFs of every election since 1987, and going back to work to replace the sadly-lost 2007 Excel doc, otherwise there would have been no seat maps.
I had used the wrong leadership date for Richardson in the 2018 box, so here it is corrected, and included for the sake of completeness:
And as a bonus, the 2015 Conservative leadership election that first brought Richard Samuels to 10 Downing:
I don't suppose there's a wiki infobox for that? Joking of course.
Monday September 23rd 2019
Hannah Martin to resign as an MP due to "Family reasons"
In a highly emotional speech to the Labour Party conference in Brighton this morning, Shadow Home Secretary Hannah Martin announced that she was standing down as MP for Manchester Central, a seat she has represented since 2007.
Martin who is married to the United States Speaker of the House Daniel Maddox, gave birth to a son, Tyler back in January, and took maternity leave after the birth. Martin who has two children from her first marriage as well, told conference "The strain is now too much, I cannot be a good mother, wife, MP as well as a member of the Shadow Cabinet, with a husband who is third in line in the US line of succession".
In a wide ranging speech, Martin who ran for the Labour leadership in 2014 finishing third, said "As a party we must unite around Jack's leadership, he can take us back into Government", whilst launching a stinging attack on Daniel Lamont who defected to the Socialist Alliance last week after his defeat in the leadership election " Never let this party fall into the hands of the negative socialism of the Socialist Alliance, the hatred, the blame culture, and it's anti-western ideals, socialism should not be negative, it has to be positive".
Martin's decision to stand down as an MP means that Jack Coll will face two by-elections in the coming weeks, Manchester Central and Hackney South & Shoreditch. At the General Election last year, Martin won with a majority of 27,356 with the Conservatives in second place.
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Atlantis Cable News
Collins & McColl set for Tuesday Night Rumble at Oregon University
Eugene, Oregon- Governor Walter Collins and Secretary of State Candice McColl have finally come to terms about their first and only gubernatorial debate. Scheduled for next Tuesday Night, October 1st, at Oregon University in Eugene. McColl, who has seen some of her momentum die over the course of the summer, hopes to use this debate to jump over the final hurdle standing between her and the Governor's Mansion. Governor Collins hopes to use the same event to knock off his challenger once and for all.
Monday, September 23rd 2019
President, First Lady expecting twins
The White House has announced that the President and First Lady are expecting twins. White House Press Secretary Cassie Tatum said that the First Lady's first ultrasound at Walter Reed Medical Center yesterday revealed two developing fetuses in utero.
"As you can imagine, the president and First Lady are pleasantly surprised by this development." Tatum said, adding that the ultrasound revealed no abnormalities. The First Couple has decided not to know the gender of either twin until delivery.
Chief of Staff to the First Lady Dion Copley said that the news has slightly impacted the First Lady's projected public schedule in next spring when the babies are due, but that the public will know the details as the pregnancy continues.
OOC: We have an exclusive of President Seaborn's reaction upon hearing the news that he's going to have two newborns instead of one to deal with while also running the country:
