A Jovian Election Night's Dream
The
2153 Xanadu premier election is believed to have begun a realignment of Xanadu politics that unseated the Sears coalition that had dominated Xanadu politics during the 2140s. John Lyman Sears considered running for a fourth term in 2153, but decided against it due to his age (83 by election day) and popularity (dipping as low as 48% in winter 2152), leading to a wide open election. Sears's dip in popularity could be attributed to several social issues that had arisen during his final term. The economy was still humming along, with low inflation, low unemployment and high productivity--though plenty of fiscal conservatives and budget hawks were worried about rising budget defecits and spending.
One of the largest issues was human settlement on the Xanadu frontier. The government had limited the number of human homesteads, instead preferring to parcel out land to the indigenous centaurs. This did not sit well with many frontierists (particularly those within Columbia's Light, which had heistantly endorsed Sears the previous three elections) who wanted to open up the frontier for human settlement. The frontierists had always been a bit uneasy with Sears, who had spent much of the late 2130s (particularly during the Sexual Revoltuion) fighting against human settlers and sooners (in particular, Mina Fowler of the American Volunteers) in central Xanadu.
The other pressing issue was the question of centaur marriage and birth rates. The centaur sex ratio had always been skewed heavily female (more than 80% of centaurs in pre-Revolution Xanadu were female), the numbers had become even more skewed following the Sexual Revolution with the male centaur population more than halved. The population growth rate of centaurs had cratered to far below replacement levels, but they were beginning to recover with the introduction of artificial wombs for centaurs which would allow two females to produce a child. With that introduction, population growth began to slowly recover but their was the question of who to pay for it. Use of artificial wombs for humans and most other alien species was subsidized by Medicare, but there was some resistance for government subsidies for centaur artificial wombs, particularly when Equallis was still being heavily subsidized. Centaur marriage was an overlapping issue. Centaur marriages were traditionally polgamous with one male and several female wives, but with the ever-declining number of males (and the impending, implied gendercide if the John Birch Society was to be believed), this was becoming untennable. Many females still believed in "traditional centaur marriage" and entered into all-female polygamous marriages that were not legally binding. This was not a right-left issue. Conservatives could argue for traditional centaur marriage or traditional human marriage, while liberal could argue for freedom of sexual expression or against tradition--while there was a very small, but vocal contingent that argued that marriage should always just be one man, one woman.
These issues overlapped to create a very intense and vigerous election as both parties quickly aligned around chosen candidates. Dr. Bryan C. Condon declined a second run for Premier, instead endorsing Senator Eliza Gaul of Geronimo (his running mate in 2149) for Premier. Incumbent Democratic Deputy Premier Alf Butler declined to run, and the establishment (with Sears's backing) quickly rallied behind Dr. Hazel Blackwell of Sagittarius, the Secretary of Public Health and the former President of the University of Sagittarius. Gaul was a charismatic moderate who opposed further frontier settlement and artificial womb subsidies and supported rollbacks of Equalis subsidies, tax cuts and a balanced budget. Blackwell was a doctor and xenobiologist who'd been one of the pointmen for the Ordonez and Sears administrations for Equalis. She supported the centaur artificial womb subsidies and expanded welfare projects, but like Gaul, opposed expanded human settlement on the frontier.
However, Blackwell was criticized by both the left and the right. The left was, in particular, critical of her foreign policy as--like Sears--she opposed expanded trade talks with neighbors and supported a military buildup against the Scandinavian Nifelheim to the east. Many prominent left-wing Democrats left the Democratic Party to back Helen Collins of New Yuma for Premier. Collins was Sears's former Environmental Secretary who had resigned over national and commonwelath park issues. She joined the Green Party, and selected State Senator Miller Gonzalez of Minos (a Democrat) as her running mate. The right was opposed to further "special rights" for the centaurs and supported expanded and unregulated human settlement. Columbia's Light refused to endorse either Blackwell or Gaul, instead nomination former Lieutenant Governor Blaine Hibbert of Asclartos for Premier on a platform of scaling back government welfare for centaurs and deregulating government regulation for human frontier settlement.
The Blackwell campaign believed that the election would be an easy one despite Hibbert and Collins splintering the Democratic vote. She relied heavily on Sears's backing and funding. Gaul ran an insurgent campaign, focusing on her own charisma and record in the Commonwelath Senate. Despite her rather tepid support of Equalis and artificial womb funding, her support for civil rights and same-sex plural marriages continued the (minor) Republican-swing that Condon had started. The Blackwell campaign was far too complacent, and ended up paying the price for it. Eliza Gaul squeaked by on a narrow victory of 15,000 votes as Hibbert and Collins managed to siphon more than 1.7 million votes away from Blackwell. The loss was a wake up call for many Democrats, who had begun to believe that they'd created a permanent Democratic majority in Xanadu. Sears's coalition was beginning to show signs of splintering between the right and the left, humans and centaurs. With her narrow victory, Gaul promised to work with Democrats and Republicans to create a better, more free Xanadu.
2127 Dacia
2131 Dacia
2133 Xanadu
2135 Dacia
Second Whaling War
2139 Dacia
2137 Xanadu
2141 Xanadu & 2143 Barasses
2145 Xanadu & 2147 Barasses
2149 Xanadu & 2151 Barasses