Not sure what you mean by this. In the 1986 Election Newman beat Furman by 274 to 264 electoral votes, and by 50.17% to 49.83% in the popular vote (popular vote margin was 315,170 votes).
2018 Presidential Election
- Thread starter Marky Bunny
- Start date
The reason the President is not chosen by popular vote was a maneuver by the slave states during the 1787 Convention. In the Constitution's original voting rules, to cast a ballot a person had to
1) own a certain amount of property
2) be male
3) be white.
The 13 former colonies each had the same roughly of property owners to non-property owners, and that had of course the exact same ratio of males to females. But they did not have the same ratio of whites to blacks! The non-direct election had the effect of letting the slave-holding south punch above its weight in the choice of president. (The 3/5 compromise was to balance this power).
The reason the votes are assigned to electors selected by the state government itself, rather than automatically given to the state's candidate, is a separate element, due to concerns some demagogue might steal the election and need to be stopped by decent people. This is today irrelevant, because the electors are required by state laws to respect the candidate of their state. Only one elector, to my knowledge, has ever disregarded this. It was in 2016, when one of the Republican electors cast his ballot for Dennis Kunnich as a protest against Putin's backing of Trump.
OOC: Realistically, this suit never would get anywhere to the Supreme Court, nor would the Court take it.
The Court can't find the Electoral College or most parts of it unconstitutional since most of its features are explicitly in the Constitution itself.
Also, the suit wouldn't really have standing since many of the states that would be party to it (states Shallick won) benefit from the Electoral College's disproportionality and states have always been free to divide up their electors proportionately anyways (the reason none do is in large part because they have more leverage by awarding their electors in a bloc).
This is all completely wrong. Twenty states don't any have laws that bind electors to the candidate a plurality of voters selected and fewer than ten states will actually cancel any electoral vote attempt to vote for someone other than the person who is deemed to have won the most votes in that state.
In addition, there have been 167 instances of electors going faithless. Seven came in 2016 and none of them voted for Kucinich.
Holly crap, you are right! I have no idea where I learned some of that! thank you!
mspence
Banned
For some reason I thought the EC didn't apply in 1986; I think IRL any special election would have been handled in Congress.
IRL there never would have been a special election. the constitution is quite clear on the issue. If the President is incapacitated, the Vice President shall ask as Acting President. IRL Bush would have served out the remainder of Reagan's term until January 20th, 1989
Tuesday, March 19th 2019
President Seaborn's Budget Proposal Calls For Massive Increase in Infrastructure, Green Energy Spending, Tax Hikes For Wealthy
President Sam Seaborn submitted his administration's first budget proposal earlier today and it has drawn attention for ambitious proposals to massively increase spending on infrastructure and investment in renewable energy research, to be paid for by adding three tax brackets to the top of the current tax bracket, culminating in a new top rate of 50% on all income earned over $10 million for single filers. Director of the Office of Management and the Budget (OMB) Andrew Delaney said that the budget would "increase the deficit slightly" in the short term, but given the proposed infrastructure repairs and projects that the program would fund, Delaney says the OMB projects "long-term savings on infrastructure spending" if the current plan is approved by Congress. The president's budget calls for $750 billion in infrastructure spending, a tremendous leap from the $21 billion that was allocated in last year's budget, the last approved under his predecessor, Glen Allen Walken. It also calls for $10 billion to be put aside for a proposed expansion of Medicaid to allow people making up to 133% of the federal poverty line to use the program in states that accept a potential expansion.
Senate Majority Leader Cody Riley (R-AL) quickly signaled that the president's "pie-in-the-sky" budget would not pass the Senate. "The President, in his very first budget, has proposed the greatest tax increase in recent American history," Riley said in a statement. "While it's clear that the administration does not seriously believe that they will get this budget approved as is, the fact that the president can be pushed to the radical left by voices within his own party is alarming." Congresswoman Bonnie Thayer (R-AR), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, said that she was "quite surprised" by President Seaborn's ambitious agenda, but was confident that she and Budget Committee Chair Caroline Martin (D-MA) could craft "a less radical, but more responsible" alternative.
Several smaller items proposed will likely see much fewer, if any objections: an increase in the Department of Defense's budget to order a sixth Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier that will eventually replace the USS Abraham Lincoln, an increase in relief for farmers whose crops or livestock are damaged by extreme nature events such as flooding or drought, funding for a blue-ribbon panel to examine several education reform proposals including the feasibility of free community college and increasing federal tax support for charter schools and an increase to the college loan deduction to $4,000 from up to $2,500.
What do God, Luke Skywalker and Thanos' dad all have in common? They're in this set of infoboxes!
Casting (all previously established)
Morgan Freeman as Henry Staub
James Brolin as Robert Ritchie
Dave Thomas as Jim Buckner
Mark Hamill as Ryan Lyndell
Casting (all previously established)
Morgan Freeman as Henry Staub
James Brolin as Robert Ritchie
Dave Thomas as Jim Buckner
Mark Hamill as Ryan Lyndell
- Most of Staub's info was previously established. Most of the new stuff is just who succeeded and preceded him in his Virginia state positions.
In addition to being the first (and so far only) non-white Chief Justice, Staub is also the only Supreme Court justice nominated by an acting president. Normally, that might seem unusual, especially given that his confirmation went until after D. Wire Newman won the 1986 special election, but it would probably be seen as acceptable since Staub was seen as a bipartisan choice (he was confirmed unanimously) and Warren Burger (then 79) clearly had wanted to retire since the end of the court's previous term. - Ritchie's previous experience before becoming Florida's governor had two different explanations: one was he was a state senator while another had him as a businessman who hadn't held any previous elected office. I decided to go with that he was a businessman until he entered politics in the early 1990s and won a state senate seat.
Fun fact: His wife's maiden name is actually Brolin's birth surname (he changed his name to Brolin when he started acting). - Buckner was established as being born in 1960, but that doesn't make sense given that he's established as graduating from Brown in 1973 and Angelina Jolie, who plays his daughter Susan, was born in 1975. I went with the more sensible 1951 birth date, which makes him about 24 when his daughter was born instead of...15.
The Milwaukee Independence Party seems like it was established as essentially a vehicle to get Buckner on the ballot for Milwaukee's mayoral election after losing the 1992 Democratic primary. I'd imagine that after Buckner left office, the party folded. - Lyndell's backstory was established in broad outlines- that he was a Harvard professor who was considered a visionary on foreign policy and economics that was persuaded to run for the Senate in 2000 and has been there ever since. I've had him as growing up outside of Boston, since it sounds like Walden (going with the theme of him being kind of like a Jedi--he's rejected for succeeding Hoynes in the show because he probably wouldn't be confirmed since "He's got an Asian garden in the back of his house where he meditates.") and go to Tufts since it fits much better for a guy like him than Harvard or Yale.
Also, this is the fourth MA senator infobox I've done (the other four are Fitzsimmons, Roland Pierce, and Isaac Sidley).
Last edited:
Ashland became Chief Justice in 1992? Always figured he had been there for a long long time than 15-odd years....
*looks a wiki*
Ok, guess I was a bit wrong there. But that just seems really small and tiny to me.
Well, I guess being the Associate Justice for an extra couple of decades makes sense (according to the wiki anyway)....
*looks a wiki*
Ok, guess I was a bit wrong there. But that just seems really small and tiny to me.
Well, I guess being the Associate Justice for an extra couple of decades makes sense (according to the wiki anyway)....
it was the only way I and others came up with ten years ago to get the election years changed other than the "Nixon Theory" which I didn't buy.
BBC.CO.UK/Politics
Wednesday March 20th 2019
Latest Polling By-Elections March 28th
Bermondsey and Old Southwark
South Shields
Wednesday March 20th 2019
Latest Polling By-Elections March 28th
Bermondsey and Old Southwark
- Labour 39%
- Liberal Democrat 32%
- Conservative 14%
- NPP 7%
- Socialist Alliance 3%
- Green 1.5%
- Others 3.5%
South Shields
- Labour 34%
- NPP 31%
- Conservative 25%
- Socialist Alliance 5%
- Liberal Democrat 2%
- Green 2%
- Others 1%
Last edited:
No reason was given, but it's kind of been implied that he felt taking the position was more of a duty to the nation that had just gone through the crisis brought about by Reagan's incapacitation than something he really wanted. That Lassiter was elected in 1990 also seems to have played a major role- he clearly wanted his successor to be appointed by a Republican (but he probably was a bit miffed that it was arch-liberal Roy Ashland who ended up in the chief's seat as part of a deal with Senate Dems to allow Lassiter to appoint a conservative associate justice).
Wednesday, March 20th 2019
Reeves tops Butler in OK-03 primary
Enid, OK — State representative Shane Reeves has defeated state senator Randall Butler by nearly ten percentage points to win the Republican nomination for the special election to Oklahoma's 3rd congressional district. Reeves, who is only 38, credits his victory to voters being tired of "politics as usual". "We're sending a message that the era of 'going along to get along' is over when it comes to reckless politicians wasting our tax dollars and letting illegal immigrants pour over our southern border to steal American jobs." Reeves said in his victory speech.
Reeves' strident anti-immigrant position set him apart from Butler, who favors a "pathway to citizenship" for undocumented immigrants who have been in the United States for a period of at least ten years without committing a crime, and has been viewed as a major factor in his victory. "By dint of resume and other conventional measures of candidate strength, Senator Butler should have prevailed," Paul Gottlieb, Professor of Political Science at the University of Oklahoma said, "but it seems that Representative Reeves was more in-tune with the Republican primary electorate, and that made up for his youth, smaller network of supporters, and very few endorsements from national figures or organizations."
The seat, vacated by now-Commissioner of Baseball George Walker, is extremely Republican—Henry Shallick won it by a 50% margin last November—and Reeves' victory is tantamount to election. He faces the Democratic candidate, businessman Wayne Ingersoll, in the special election on April 16.
Results of the Republican Party Primary Run-off for the US House Special Election for the Third District
Shane Reeves: 54.63%
Randall Butler: 45.37%
Shane Reeves: 54.63%
Randall Butler: 45.37%
I call this set "Two Senators, a Dog and a Guy in Charge of Most Federal Places"
Casting (all previously established)
Patrick Dempsey as Andrew Thorn
Natalie Portman as Nicole Kershaw
Hayden Christensen as Sean Boone
Casting (all previously established)
Patrick Dempsey as Andrew Thorn
Natalie Portman as Nicole Kershaw
Hayden Christensen as Sean Boone
- Most of Marty (Seaborn)'s infobox is based off that of RL former First Dog Bo (Obama). His predecessor as First Dog was President Walken's dog Martha, who he got after his previous dogs Bess (who appeared in the show) and Margaret passed away.
- Nothing needed to be added to Thorn and Kershaw's biographies for the infobox. Really the only thing needed to add to Boone's was his immediate successor as lieutenant governor. Leo Carr had been established as the lieutenant governor in 2018, but when Boone was nominated, it was Daniel Edmonds. So I'm retconning what is clearly just an error to be that Carr was nominated by Boone after he succeeded Folan (a Democrat) as a show of bipartisanship and then won a term of his own in 2012 before retiring in 2016 when Edmonds was elected as lieutenant governor.
- Since Harrison Ford (Haydn Straus) and Mark Hamill (Ryan Lyndell) had their infoboxes done, most of the main trio of both the Prequel and Original Star Wars trilogies have had their infoboxes done. Carrie Fisher (Justine Avery) was previously shown in the SF mayor infobox (which Portman/Kershaw also appeared in), and Ewan McGregor hasn't been cast as anyone that I'm aware of.