The 2000 U.S General Election was held on November 9th,2000 to elect all 3,142 members of the Assembly of Counties. The Incumbent AAFD ruling coalition with Hobo and Veteran Nationalists prompted many within the Hobo camp to complain they were too right wing in giving out harsh crackdowns on illegal welfare usage. On the opposite side of the coin there were those within the Veteran Nationalist block which felt as if the War in Egypt was not being pursed to it's full extent ( often the full extent being the complete atomic annihilation of Cairo to end the war according to the war hawk wing of the VN.)
The Communist Party had recently undergone a massive scandal which showed vast receipts for luxury items purchased by the upper party leadership, forcing the resignation of Chairman Dole in favor of the aging Gerald Ford. With the most hardline communist supporters not only begining to be alienated by the communist party but also possibly looking for alternative county lists to vote into office, the populists were one of the preferred alternatives. There were also concerns about overpopulation, as america reached over a billion people in the year 1999.
The most hotly contested states with vulnerable incumbents included several communist party officials in Texas and All Americans For Democracy officials embroiled in several tax evasion investigations by the Politburo Standing Committee on Taxation within the solidly conservative state of Mississippi. The issues came in the form of the ongoing war in Egypt, the school lunch e coli outbreaks throughout Pennsylvania and the alleged acceptance of bribes in a scandal that filtered it's way up to the Prime Minister himself, a south Carolinan named Fritz Hollings.
The Hobo Party had formatted a county plank at their strategic convention on the consolidation of county control on behalf of the Hobo Party for the year 2000, or simply their strategic meeting in April of 2000. This Plank was signed by most incumbents who would go to their constituents, investigate the local competition in the races, report back to the party headquarters if it would be worth spending money in an incumbents campaign. A total of 67 members would be slashed funding, with that money going instead to 67 other incumbents in more easily flippable races with terrible opponents.
An October surprise soon stumbled the Communist Party's hopes of maintaining in the very least their profitable opposition status within the Assembly of Counties, with Gossip magazine reporting of a homosexual relationship occurring between Gerald Ford and General Secretary Saddam Hussein of the USSR. In three short words he buried his party's chances at an impromptu press conference in response to the allegations within the magazine. "I'm in Love."
While Ford would win his seat by a regular 40.5% with large vote splitting by other candidates, the rest of his brethren would not do so well, with the loss of over 120 seats that night with a singular gain thanks to the miraculous intervention of a photo opportunity with some north Korean bankers that were on holiday in Texas. Elsewhere the Hardliner Veteran Nationalist party headed by former Virginian Governor Oliver North picked up large numbers of seats in Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, albeit by slim to moderate margins of victory at the polls. The most pathetic party was the collection of formerly alienated populists and communists which formed Independent party tickets, with party leader Rodger Ebert even losing his seat to a communist member.