Truly, what I would give to live in a world where the United States has a viable third party. Another great update, President Benedict Arnold, and I wait eagerly for the weekend.
The Reform Party: 20 Years of History
- Thread starter President Benedict Arnold
- Start date
@President Benedict Arnold I wonder which reactions the Cuban War is going to cause. An imperialist war of invasion in early 21st century is gonna be extremely controversial. The War on Terror with the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan wased direct against enemies who mustered no empathy from anti-war environments, and their actions were abhorred by everyone. The opposition to the war came only in the form of general hostility to the military build-up itself, and there was no support to the invaded forces. But Cuba is different; they're widely respected and admired in left-wing circles around Europe, and they have a relatively good reputation as a whole. Fidel Castro and Che Guevara are figures liked by leftists more than any US president in history. They didn't launch wars of conquests or committed blatant war crimes against their own people like Saddam; they aren't a totalitarian dictatorship harboring the most wanted terrorist in the world; basically, the whole reason for the war to even have happened was Kasich getting angry at criticism and an intelligence report with, how reported by Barbara Lee, no external confirmation. So I see opposition at war being more radical than the IOTL one, with actions of sabotage and possibly a rebirth of far-left terrorism. Foreign fighters in the mold of the volunteers in the YPG could try to reach Cuba from around the world, I'd say mainly by Latin America and in a minor measure Europe. Hell, it could be interesting to see already enstablished far.left terrorists attacking American logistics in the war to help Cuba and the reaction to it. Like, America with guns in the streets of Bilbao because the ETA bombed a US base. NATO-skepticism would be a lot more popular, since America seems to have became best buddy with Russia and the Cuba War would be percieved as completely unwarranted and worrying, while 9/11 before and the expansion of Al Qaeda attacks on European soil justified at least in part, at least in general, the War on Terror. I suppose the US are going alone in Havana, right? Or they're trying to involve some NATO ally?
Right! Honestly, even if I probably would not have voted for any of these Reform Party candidates, except maybe Heckman, it makes our democracy look a lot healthier.
Yeah! It's unfortunate we don't get that meme ITTL, but at least John Binkley understands the Internet better.
These are great questions and I think most of them will be answered by in early 2003. The elections sort of interrupted the war when it had only progressed for about a month.
I can say that, although they sought allies, the United States invaded Cuba alone. Most Western countries (a major exception being PM Neil Kinnock) denounced Cuba's supposed dealings with North Korea, but think the US just wanted an excuse to unilaterally invade.
Speaking of the YPG, it's important to note that in the Iraqi Civil War, Iraqi Kurdistan seems on route to gain independence. While their borders don't include the neighboring Kurds where radical leftist groups are popular, tens of thousands have crossed the border since the civil war broke out in June 2001. If conflict ends there, where else might these fighters go?
Unfortunately for him, that happened in 2003, so he just barely missed out on it. Right now Robert Byrd is Senate Majority Leader and President Pro Tempore.
That's a great question! I'd say largely like our own at this point, but different websites came about thanks to the butterfly effect. There is no substantial legislative difference in how the US government treats the Internet yet, so the only differences have come from the way as people's lives unfolded differently from the butterfly effect.
His name is pretty great and honestly, I hadn't considered him but he'd be a decent candidate.
He was a liberal Southern Senator who routinely voted against the Kasich Administration, like on their Supreme Court nominees and the Cuban War. If he were to win the nomination, he would be a the first black man on a major party ticket and probably have a decent shot.
2002 Part 6
These two elections got so long, I decided to make them their own part. Hope you enjoy!
The 2002 Elections in New York would be remembered as one of the most exciting elections in US history. There were two, the Senate special election to replace retiring Senator George Pataki (R-NY) and the regular gubernatorial election to replace term-limited Governor Al D’Amato (R-NY). In 1999, the Clintons bought a mansion in Scarsdale, New York, immediately leading to rampant speculation that former First Lady Hillary Clinton was going to run for office there. In 2001, days after Senator Pataki (R-NY) announced his retirement, Governor Al D’Amato (R-NY) confirmed the special election for the seat would be held alongside the regular 2002 elections. A week later, Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for Senate. She had initially wanted to run in 2000 to replace outgoing Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, but was talked out of seeking elected office until after she was no longer First Lady. Congressman Jerry Nadler succeeded Moynihan and Clinton expected to wait four long years for her Senate run. That was until Pataki’s announcement, which she would not be the only one to jump on.
The first hurdles Clinton would have to clear were on the Democratic Party primaries. She would face off against Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY-9) and speculation that Attorney General Elliot Spitzer (D-NY) would run. Spitzer had defeated Dennis Vacco (R-NY) to become the only Democrat to win statewide in New York in 1998. He kept the option of running for the Senate on the table until fairly late, almost through April. The two-way race between Clinton and Weiner was a nasty one. In their first debate Weiner would say, “Let me get right to it, because it’s quite simple. First Lady Hillary Clinton, you seem like a very nice woman. Your husband was not a very nice man. He was a president who went out of his way to please Republicans and bomb foreign countries. All it cost the Democratic Party was the House, the Senate, and most of this country's governorships. Not only that but it spurred the growth of at least three prominent third parties and, I think, paved the way for the Kasich Administration. And the Democratic Party got what exactly?” She would dismiss these attacks on her husband as not reflective of her and her accomplishments. Then the moderators turned to the issue of Clinton having only recently moved to New York. Weiner would say, “I don’t believe the people of the state of New York want to be represented by the carpetbagging wife of a failed president. Perhaps you’d be more comfortable running for Senate in your home state of Arkansas.”
“I’m not from Arkansas, I grew up in Illinois.” Clinton retorted.
“So why aren’t you there now?” Weiner asked.
Clinton responded with a rehearsed speech she’s repeated a few times in interviews. She had been working to familiarize herself with the state for the past two years, spending time in every county. The difference between the two candidates went beyond the fact that Weiner was a born and raised New Yorker and Clinton had moved there as a 52 year old with the intent of running for public office. It would be a close primary, but Clinton emerged victorious, winning 55.9% to Weiner’s 44.1%. The Democratic Party primary wrapped up long before the Cuban war became a central issue, but had it come about earlier perhaps Weiner would have won. New Yorkers were mostly against the war, but their only two viable Senate candidates were both for it. Weiner conceded and stopped campaigning, but had easily won the Working Families Party endorsement and the party left him on the ballot.
In the Republican Party primary, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani would face no real challenge despite his lack of any base of support in Upstate New York. Giuliani had initially thought about running in 2000, but, between finishing his last year in office as mayor and going through his second divorce, he just didn’t have the time. Some believed he talked George Pataki into retiring, but that was just only ever speculation. Giuliani would also win the nomination of the Conservative Party, just like in his 1997 re-election campaign for mayor, and the Reform Party. The story of how he won the Reform nomination is quite funny, with the party leadership council of 14 members having come together to decide who the party should endorse in their primary. The only two people who had voiced interest that they cared to consider were Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump. They held their vote, but would have to hold a second one, because the first vote was tied: Donald Trump 7-Rudy Giuliani 7. They then held a recess where they desperately tried to find out if they could nominate Donald Trump to be the gubernatorial and Senate candidate. When this came back inconclusive, three members would switch their votes to Giuliani and he won the party’s endorsement. He would win their primary with 76.5% of the vote, with his only opponent being populist Jimmy McMillan.
The general election would be an intense battle between the controversial former Mayor of New York City and the former First Lady from out of state. Early on, Clinton was in the lead by 8 points, but saw her numbers gradually drop over the summer. In June, Clinton would attend a baseball game at Yankee Stadium and appear in a Yankee hat despite being widely known to be a lifelong Cubs fan. At the debate with Giuliani four days later, he would walk out on stage wearing a Cubs hat. The endless series of personal gaffes made by Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani would be the main story in New York until the Cuban War started. Clinton had embarrassingly mispronounced “Stuyvesant” in a campaign stop with gubernatorial candidate, former Congressman Chuck Schumer. Late in the summer, the entire campaign seemed to be hemorrhaging voters and support at every turn. One of Clinton’s staffers would later say, “Women in the educated professional class? They fucking couldn't stand her. We could never figure out why. We had psychologists come in.”
Even at her worst polling, Clinton was only ever down 2-3 points and never out of the race. Giuliani was a gaffe machine and any fumble she made would be quickly out of the news over the half a dozen shocking things Giuliani said. He would run wall to wall attack ads against the former First Lady, attacking her on everything. Calling her a carpetbagger, attacking her liberal positions, her moderate and conservative ones, and her husband’s time as president and his many scandals. They had no shortage of ammunition and outraised and outspent the Clinton campaign 2-1. Interestingly, 34% of Clinton’s money came from out of state versus 43% of Giuliani’s. Early in the campaign, Clinton had hoped to exploit Giuliani’s lack of roots or connections with Upstate New York, but nothing ever came of it. Her lack of any connections with the state at large offset how much he was an outsider there. In the end, Clinton lost by 43,000 votes while Anthony Weiner's line with the Working Families Party won 52,000.
Donald Trump (REF-NY) had been born in a rich part of Queens, NY to a wealthy real estate developer with shady ties named Fred Trump. Donald Trump grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth and would gain a tasteless love of gold as an adult. In the 1970s, the Trumps were accused of violating the Fair Housing Act at their properties. When people asked if there were any rooms available, employees would lie and say no if the people asking were black. In the process of fighting this in court, the Trumps would befriend the infamous Roy Cohn. Cohn was a bully and a bastard, one of the two men centrally responsible for the Red Scare, along with Joe McCarthy, the execution of the Rosenbergs. Directly leading in from the Red Scare was the Lavender Scare, where they outed dozens of gay people, accused them of being communists, and fired them from public service. What was most reprehensible about this is that McCarthy and Cohn were themselves gay and actively persecuting their own. This is the man who helped get the Trumps in court, and though they would lose, he would begin a lifelong friendship and mentorship of Donald Trump. Trump had followed his father in every way, but would come into his own under the tutorship of Roy Cohn. Cohn taught him how nastiness, belligerence, and obfuscation were weapons that could win him the fight for public opinion. Nationally, Trump first made his name from a book he had ghostwritten called the Art of the Deal. This launched him into an odd sort of celebrity status, a brash and loud man who was known for his business acumen, whether or not it was accurately presented.
This would quickly lead to speculation of a political career for Donald Trump, with he and Lee Iacocca both being talked about as potential candidates for president in 1988, either as independents or outsiders in one of the major parties. It wasn’t all media speculation either, Donald Trump discussed the subject with former President Richard Nixon. He and Nixon maintained a mailing correspondence for years, with Trump writing in 1982: “I think that you are one of this country’s great men, and it was an honor to spend an evening with you.” After Trump did an interview on Phil Donahue’s show in 1987, amid speculation he would run for president, Nixon wrote this to Trump: “As you can imagine, she is an expert on politics and she predicts that whenever you decide to run for office you will be a winner!”
When Trump did end up running in 2000, he would be initially dismissed as a celebrity seeking attention, but quickly built a strong campaign. He ran on a progressive-libertarian platform not uncommon within the party. He supported increased border security, universal healthcare, and a middle class tax cut, but the way he presented it was fairly unique. “I’m the only one who can...” was a common phrase for him to throw around. His two tones of voice were also very different and noteworthy. Trump would talk soft and quickly, almost frantic, in interviews or debates, but would switch to a slow and brash shouting voice at campaign rallies. He surprised everybody when he won a state in the first round of the presidential primary Nevada, narrowly taking it over former Governor Lowell Weicker (REF-CT). In the second round, he would score two victories, beating out former Governor Frank Fasi (REF-HI) to win in Iowa and Lowell Weicker to win his native New York. In the third round, Trump narrowly defeated Weicker again in Minnesota, but Weicker was ahead of him nationally, having won 6 states and D.C. Trump only had four states and slightly less votes overall, so did not qualify for the fourth round. He endorsed Lamm, but did not feel too bad about the loss. In his first run for office, he aimed for the presidency and won more votes than four officeholders, including Governors Gary Richardson (REF-OK) and Jim Justice (REF-WV). He felt as though every option was on the table, he could run for Mayor of New York City in 2001, where his friend Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) was term-limited, wait until 2002 to run for the Governorship of New York, where his friend Governor Al D’Amato (R) was term-limited, or wait until 2004 and give the Presidency another shot. He decided to pass on running for mayor when Michael Bloomberg (REF) announced his candidacy, not wanting to face off against another major party figure in a primary. An intriguing fourth option opened up when Senator George Pataki (R) announced he would retire before the expiration of his term, but Trump didn’t much like the idea of being a member of a legislator. He wanted to be an executive, so he decided to take the leap and run for Governor of New York.
Donald Trump would face no challenge in the primary. He was a well known celebrity running on a platform close to that of Jesse Ventura in 1998, supporting a major income tax cut and legalizing prostitution. Trump’s platform went further in some places, supporting a state-run universal healthcare program, introducing a small business matching loan program, and legalizing marijuana. He appeared alongside the Governing Body as he sought reelection and the two celebrity politicians drew quite a crowd. The state party leadership endorsed Trump ahead of the primary, along with the Reform’s three members of Congress from New York, Alton Waldon (NY-6), Anita Lerman (NY-13), and James Walsh (NY-25). As his running mate, Trump picked historian, scholar, healthcare reform advocate, and wife of Reform Party donor Wilbur Ross, Betsy McCaughey. A week later, he narrowly won the Liberal Party nomination against Chuck Schumer, which Trump said signalled victory in the general.
The general election would see this incredibly rich progressive populist face off against former Congressman Chuck Schumer (D-NY-9) and former State Senator Randy Kuhl (R-NY). Schumer was known for his fundraising capabilities, having run and lost two years ago in the 2000 Senate election eventually won by Jerry Nadler (D-NY). Randy Kuhl had been almost a total unknown statewide when he started his campaign, but managed to come in second in a crowded primary and defeated Lieutenant Governor Evan Galbraith in a runoff. Kuhl was perceived as a moderate despite being pro-life, anti-tax, and fanatically against public healthcare. He would attack Schumer as a feckless liberal and Trump as a dangerous demagogue, who would welcome communism into the state of New York. Schumer would run more ads and hire more staffers than the other two campaigns combined, but Trump would always have the momentum and the outsider appeal. One interview in particular hurt Schumer, after he said he considered himself to the left of Trump. When asked why his infrastructure and healthcare plans were less ambitious than Trump, Schumer couldn’t answer. Due to his abrasive attitude Trump got higher negative opinions than the other candidates, but his platform was popular and the Schumer campaign was floundering. He gave crude nicknames to each of his opponents, like “Chuck the Schmuck” and “Dull Kuhl,” which he referred to them as more than their actual names. In a close vote, he would narrowly win.
The 2002 Elections in New York would be remembered as one of the most exciting elections in US history. There were two, the Senate special election to replace retiring Senator George Pataki (R-NY) and the regular gubernatorial election to replace term-limited Governor Al D’Amato (R-NY). In 1999, the Clintons bought a mansion in Scarsdale, New York, immediately leading to rampant speculation that former First Lady Hillary Clinton was going to run for office there. In 2001, days after Senator Pataki (R-NY) announced his retirement, Governor Al D’Amato (R-NY) confirmed the special election for the seat would be held alongside the regular 2002 elections. A week later, Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for Senate. She had initially wanted to run in 2000 to replace outgoing Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, but was talked out of seeking elected office until after she was no longer First Lady. Congressman Jerry Nadler succeeded Moynihan and Clinton expected to wait four long years for her Senate run. That was until Pataki’s announcement, which she would not be the only one to jump on.
The first hurdles Clinton would have to clear were on the Democratic Party primaries. She would face off against Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY-9) and speculation that Attorney General Elliot Spitzer (D-NY) would run. Spitzer had defeated Dennis Vacco (R-NY) to become the only Democrat to win statewide in New York in 1998. He kept the option of running for the Senate on the table until fairly late, almost through April. The two-way race between Clinton and Weiner was a nasty one. In their first debate Weiner would say, “Let me get right to it, because it’s quite simple. First Lady Hillary Clinton, you seem like a very nice woman. Your husband was not a very nice man. He was a president who went out of his way to please Republicans and bomb foreign countries. All it cost the Democratic Party was the House, the Senate, and most of this country's governorships. Not only that but it spurred the growth of at least three prominent third parties and, I think, paved the way for the Kasich Administration. And the Democratic Party got what exactly?” She would dismiss these attacks on her husband as not reflective of her and her accomplishments. Then the moderators turned to the issue of Clinton having only recently moved to New York. Weiner would say, “I don’t believe the people of the state of New York want to be represented by the carpetbagging wife of a failed president. Perhaps you’d be more comfortable running for Senate in your home state of Arkansas.”
“I’m not from Arkansas, I grew up in Illinois.” Clinton retorted.
“So why aren’t you there now?” Weiner asked.
Clinton responded with a rehearsed speech she’s repeated a few times in interviews. She had been working to familiarize herself with the state for the past two years, spending time in every county. The difference between the two candidates went beyond the fact that Weiner was a born and raised New Yorker and Clinton had moved there as a 52 year old with the intent of running for public office. It would be a close primary, but Clinton emerged victorious, winning 55.9% to Weiner’s 44.1%. The Democratic Party primary wrapped up long before the Cuban war became a central issue, but had it come about earlier perhaps Weiner would have won. New Yorkers were mostly against the war, but their only two viable Senate candidates were both for it. Weiner conceded and stopped campaigning, but had easily won the Working Families Party endorsement and the party left him on the ballot.
In the Republican Party primary, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani would face no real challenge despite his lack of any base of support in Upstate New York. Giuliani had initially thought about running in 2000, but, between finishing his last year in office as mayor and going through his second divorce, he just didn’t have the time. Some believed he talked George Pataki into retiring, but that was just only ever speculation. Giuliani would also win the nomination of the Conservative Party, just like in his 1997 re-election campaign for mayor, and the Reform Party. The story of how he won the Reform nomination is quite funny, with the party leadership council of 14 members having come together to decide who the party should endorse in their primary. The only two people who had voiced interest that they cared to consider were Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump. They held their vote, but would have to hold a second one, because the first vote was tied: Donald Trump 7-Rudy Giuliani 7. They then held a recess where they desperately tried to find out if they could nominate Donald Trump to be the gubernatorial and Senate candidate. When this came back inconclusive, three members would switch their votes to Giuliani and he won the party’s endorsement. He would win their primary with 76.5% of the vote, with his only opponent being populist Jimmy McMillan.
The general election would be an intense battle between the controversial former Mayor of New York City and the former First Lady from out of state. Early on, Clinton was in the lead by 8 points, but saw her numbers gradually drop over the summer. In June, Clinton would attend a baseball game at Yankee Stadium and appear in a Yankee hat despite being widely known to be a lifelong Cubs fan. At the debate with Giuliani four days later, he would walk out on stage wearing a Cubs hat. The endless series of personal gaffes made by Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani would be the main story in New York until the Cuban War started. Clinton had embarrassingly mispronounced “Stuyvesant” in a campaign stop with gubernatorial candidate, former Congressman Chuck Schumer. Late in the summer, the entire campaign seemed to be hemorrhaging voters and support at every turn. One of Clinton’s staffers would later say, “Women in the educated professional class? They fucking couldn't stand her. We could never figure out why. We had psychologists come in.”
Even at her worst polling, Clinton was only ever down 2-3 points and never out of the race. Giuliani was a gaffe machine and any fumble she made would be quickly out of the news over the half a dozen shocking things Giuliani said. He would run wall to wall attack ads against the former First Lady, attacking her on everything. Calling her a carpetbagger, attacking her liberal positions, her moderate and conservative ones, and her husband’s time as president and his many scandals. They had no shortage of ammunition and outraised and outspent the Clinton campaign 2-1. Interestingly, 34% of Clinton’s money came from out of state versus 43% of Giuliani’s. Early in the campaign, Clinton had hoped to exploit Giuliani’s lack of roots or connections with Upstate New York, but nothing ever came of it. Her lack of any connections with the state at large offset how much he was an outsider there. In the end, Clinton lost by 43,000 votes while Anthony Weiner's line with the Working Families Party won 52,000.
Donald Trump (REF-NY) had been born in a rich part of Queens, NY to a wealthy real estate developer with shady ties named Fred Trump. Donald Trump grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth and would gain a tasteless love of gold as an adult. In the 1970s, the Trumps were accused of violating the Fair Housing Act at their properties. When people asked if there were any rooms available, employees would lie and say no if the people asking were black. In the process of fighting this in court, the Trumps would befriend the infamous Roy Cohn. Cohn was a bully and a bastard, one of the two men centrally responsible for the Red Scare, along with Joe McCarthy, the execution of the Rosenbergs. Directly leading in from the Red Scare was the Lavender Scare, where they outed dozens of gay people, accused them of being communists, and fired them from public service. What was most reprehensible about this is that McCarthy and Cohn were themselves gay and actively persecuting their own. This is the man who helped get the Trumps in court, and though they would lose, he would begin a lifelong friendship and mentorship of Donald Trump. Trump had followed his father in every way, but would come into his own under the tutorship of Roy Cohn. Cohn taught him how nastiness, belligerence, and obfuscation were weapons that could win him the fight for public opinion. Nationally, Trump first made his name from a book he had ghostwritten called the Art of the Deal. This launched him into an odd sort of celebrity status, a brash and loud man who was known for his business acumen, whether or not it was accurately presented.
This would quickly lead to speculation of a political career for Donald Trump, with he and Lee Iacocca both being talked about as potential candidates for president in 1988, either as independents or outsiders in one of the major parties. It wasn’t all media speculation either, Donald Trump discussed the subject with former President Richard Nixon. He and Nixon maintained a mailing correspondence for years, with Trump writing in 1982: “I think that you are one of this country’s great men, and it was an honor to spend an evening with you.” After Trump did an interview on Phil Donahue’s show in 1987, amid speculation he would run for president, Nixon wrote this to Trump: “As you can imagine, she is an expert on politics and she predicts that whenever you decide to run for office you will be a winner!”
When Trump did end up running in 2000, he would be initially dismissed as a celebrity seeking attention, but quickly built a strong campaign. He ran on a progressive-libertarian platform not uncommon within the party. He supported increased border security, universal healthcare, and a middle class tax cut, but the way he presented it was fairly unique. “I’m the only one who can...” was a common phrase for him to throw around. His two tones of voice were also very different and noteworthy. Trump would talk soft and quickly, almost frantic, in interviews or debates, but would switch to a slow and brash shouting voice at campaign rallies. He surprised everybody when he won a state in the first round of the presidential primary Nevada, narrowly taking it over former Governor Lowell Weicker (REF-CT). In the second round, he would score two victories, beating out former Governor Frank Fasi (REF-HI) to win in Iowa and Lowell Weicker to win his native New York. In the third round, Trump narrowly defeated Weicker again in Minnesota, but Weicker was ahead of him nationally, having won 6 states and D.C. Trump only had four states and slightly less votes overall, so did not qualify for the fourth round. He endorsed Lamm, but did not feel too bad about the loss. In his first run for office, he aimed for the presidency and won more votes than four officeholders, including Governors Gary Richardson (REF-OK) and Jim Justice (REF-WV). He felt as though every option was on the table, he could run for Mayor of New York City in 2001, where his friend Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) was term-limited, wait until 2002 to run for the Governorship of New York, where his friend Governor Al D’Amato (R) was term-limited, or wait until 2004 and give the Presidency another shot. He decided to pass on running for mayor when Michael Bloomberg (REF) announced his candidacy, not wanting to face off against another major party figure in a primary. An intriguing fourth option opened up when Senator George Pataki (R) announced he would retire before the expiration of his term, but Trump didn’t much like the idea of being a member of a legislator. He wanted to be an executive, so he decided to take the leap and run for Governor of New York.
Donald Trump would face no challenge in the primary. He was a well known celebrity running on a platform close to that of Jesse Ventura in 1998, supporting a major income tax cut and legalizing prostitution. Trump’s platform went further in some places, supporting a state-run universal healthcare program, introducing a small business matching loan program, and legalizing marijuana. He appeared alongside the Governing Body as he sought reelection and the two celebrity politicians drew quite a crowd. The state party leadership endorsed Trump ahead of the primary, along with the Reform’s three members of Congress from New York, Alton Waldon (NY-6), Anita Lerman (NY-13), and James Walsh (NY-25). As his running mate, Trump picked historian, scholar, healthcare reform advocate, and wife of Reform Party donor Wilbur Ross, Betsy McCaughey. A week later, he narrowly won the Liberal Party nomination against Chuck Schumer, which Trump said signalled victory in the general.
The general election would see this incredibly rich progressive populist face off against former Congressman Chuck Schumer (D-NY-9) and former State Senator Randy Kuhl (R-NY). Schumer was known for his fundraising capabilities, having run and lost two years ago in the 2000 Senate election eventually won by Jerry Nadler (D-NY). Randy Kuhl had been almost a total unknown statewide when he started his campaign, but managed to come in second in a crowded primary and defeated Lieutenant Governor Evan Galbraith in a runoff. Kuhl was perceived as a moderate despite being pro-life, anti-tax, and fanatically against public healthcare. He would attack Schumer as a feckless liberal and Trump as a dangerous demagogue, who would welcome communism into the state of New York. Schumer would run more ads and hire more staffers than the other two campaigns combined, but Trump would always have the momentum and the outsider appeal. One interview in particular hurt Schumer, after he said he considered himself to the left of Trump. When asked why his infrastructure and healthcare plans were less ambitious than Trump, Schumer couldn’t answer. Due to his abrasive attitude Trump got higher negative opinions than the other candidates, but his platform was popular and the Schumer campaign was floundering. He gave crude nicknames to each of his opponents, like “Chuck the Schmuck” and “Dull Kuhl,” which he referred to them as more than their actual names. In a close vote, he would narrowly win.
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Damn, I almost feel bad for the Democrats in New York. They keep losing. First New York City, and now the Senate and Governor's office. Wonder how New York will be like in a few years with Reform Dominance.
2002 Part 7
Senator John Kerry (D-MA) voted for the Cuban War and would see no Republican file to run against him. Two other party candidates would emerge to attack him from the left and right. Libertarian activist Carla Howell (REF-MA) made a name for herself when she lobbied the public to help defeat a state income tax increase in 2001. She would use that as a springboard for her Senate campaign, but would be blindsided by the state party agreeing to endorse the Green Party candidate. She would run on the Libertarian Party line and received endorsements from people like Senators Sam Rankin (REF-MT), Chuck Hagel (REF-NE), and Wes Watkins (REF-OK), former House Oppositions Leader Ron Paul (REF-TX-22), and former Speaker Bob Barr (REF-GA-7). Howell would run her attack ads as though she were the Republican candidate, going after John Kerry as “the worst tax and spend liberal in Washington” and would position her platform as for Republicans, moderates, and people sick of “manicured politicians with their phony promises.” The other candidate would come from the Green Party and attack Kerry from the left. Randall Forsberg (G-MA) had been a lifelong peace activist, academic, and government official. In 1995, she was appointed by President Clinton to the Advisory Committee of US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. In 1999, she would co-found the national Green Party and chaired Ralph Nader’s campaign in the state of Massachusetts, where he won 4.1%. She had passed on running against Senator Ted Kennedy in 2000, but wanted to run against Kerry. John Kerry had narrowly defeated then Republican Governor Bill Weld (REF-MA) in an election year. Forsberg believed Kerry was vulnerable and, without a Republican in the race, she felt comfortable going after him. She would have the endorsement and strong backing of the Massachusetts Reform Party, and its leading members, Governor Bill Weld (REF-MA) and Congresswoman Elizabeth Warren (REF-MA-5).
Despite being a recognizable figure and running a tight campaign, Forsberg had no real chance until John Kerry voted for the Cuban War. She found this indefensible and would campaign fanatically against him. She would bring a projector to campaign rallies and play video footage of Kerry arguing against the Vietnam War. “How do ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake? But we are trying to do that, and we are doing it with thousands of rationalizations, and if you read carefully the President's last speech to the people of this country, you can see that he says, and says clearly: But the issue, gentlemen, the issue is communism, and the question is whether or not we will leave that country to the communists or whether or not we will try to give it hope to be a free people. But the point is they are not a free people now under us. They are not a free people, and we cannot fight communism all over the world, and I think we should have learned that lesson by now.” At one event, after presenting this, she got up on stage and would say “Senator Kerry, did you bump your head and forget?” She and her volunteer staff would pass out millions of pamphlets and run dozens of attack ads focusing on Kerry’s indefensibly centrist voting record. Despite all of this, Senator John Kerry never acted like he was in any electoral danger. He thought he would easily cruise to re-election with polls in November showing him at 50%, and Howell and Forsberg evenly splitting what was left. This would not last. Without the fear of a Republican taking office, and with the hard campaigning, Forsberg got more attention. People in the liberal state of Massachusetts began breaking for Forsberg in droves, supporting her anti-war, progressive platform.
Paul Wellstone was a progressive Democrat first elected in 1990, defeating incumbent Senator Rudy Boschwitz. Wellstone had won with support from union organizations like the AFL-CIO, along with progressive groups like the Americans for Democratic Action and the American Civil Liberties Union. He would oppose the Gulf War, voted against the repeal of Glass-Steagall, and, after facing criticism for voting for the Defense of Marriage Act, asked to be educated on the issue and then came out in favor of gay marriage. He was planning a run for President in 2000, until he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He would endorse Bill Bradley and helped him win Minnesota in the primary.
Tim Penny (REF-MN) polled extremely well at the beginning of the campaign, mainly coming in second but occasionally tying with incumbent Senator Paul Wellstone in polls during the Spring. Tim Penny had a wide swathe of tacit support, with most people saying they’d vote for him being Democrats not committed to Wellstone's progressivism and Republicans who thought he had a better shot than their candidate. As the Cuban War became a central issue, it all fell apart. Tim Penny was broadly anti-war but thought it’d be smart to position himself as a “pragmatic realist” who understood the war couldn’t just stop now, though should “at an appropriate time in the near or not too distant future.” This position was unappealing. Minnesota was sharply divided on the war, and began polarizing around the candidates who were strongly pro and anti-war. By the end of September, Penny was regularly polling under 30% and began to fear his whole campaign would collapse. Nothing that dramatic happened, but Penny’s third place finish was fairly distant.
Elizabeth Dole was a familiar face within the Republican Party. She was a North Carolina native, but moved to Washington D.C. as a young adult. She would meet Senator Bob Dole in 1972 and they married in 1975. They are perhaps one of the more lowkey political couples because Elizabeth Dole's career didn't really start until Bob Dole was near the end of his final term. She had served a full government career, but never in an elected position. She was Commissioner of the Free Trade Commission from 1973 to 1979, having been appointed by Richard Nixon. She would then serve in the Cabinets of Presidents Reagan and Bush, as Reagan's Transportation Secretary from 1983 to 1987 and Bush's Labor Secretary from 1989 to 1990. In 1991, Dole became President of the American Red Cross and would serve until 1999, when she retired to run for President. Her presidential run was encouraged by her husband, who ran in 1980 and 1988, but sat out 1996 and regretted it. He felt as if the party's disastrous result in 1996 was his fault and he believed that he or his wife could have won the nomination that year. When she approached him about running for office, he was supportive and when she jumped into the presidential race, he knew she'd either win or the field was strong enough that the party wouldn't be embarrassed that November. After the presidential run, Elizabeth Dole wanted to run for a more attainable office and decided to run for Senate in her home state of North Carolina when longtime rightwing Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) announced his retirement.
Sean Haugh (REF-NC) was a libertarian member of the Reform State Party Council and a pizza delivery man who became famous for that fact when he ran for Senate in 2002. He would find himself raising millions of funds and decided to tour around the state in a car he rented with a giant plastic pizza on top. He ran on abolishing the Federal Reserve, the IRS, income and sales tax, ending the Cuban War, and getting corporate money out of politics. He would not be invited to any of the debates, but would actually host a debate against a congressional candidate, Green-aligned progressive Brad Miller (REF-NC-13), which was watched by a decently size TV audience. In the end, Elizabeth Dole easily won the Senate seat, but Haugh walked away with a respectable 19.95% of the vote.
Scott Moore had a long career in politics, beginning in 1980 when he was 20. He worked as a legislative aide until he won a seat in the legislature for himself as a 26 year old Republican. Eight years later, he was elected the Republican Secretary of State, and ran for re-election as an independent in 1998, having won the endorsements of the Republican and Reform Parties. When Mike Johanns (REF-NE) became governor, Moore joined the Reform Party. He endorsed Senator Dick Lamm (REF-CO) in his presidential campaign and, in 2002, would run to succeed outgoing Senator Chuck Hagel (REF-NE). Hagel did not seek a second term, but did not publicly disclose why he was leaving office. It would become clear in January of 2003. Moore ran to succeed him but, unlike Senator Hagel, ran as an anti-war libertarian candidate with the advice of Senator John Driscoll (REF-MT) and Governor Jesse Ventura (REF-MN). His platform included decriminalizing all personal actions that do not harm others, like euthanasia, loitering, prostitution, and the War on Drugs, and a Constitutional Amendment that would directly tie spending cuts to tax cuts. This was a surprise to many, as Moore had been a fairly mainstream Republican before this transformation. His nomination was opposed by Governor Mike Johanns (REF-NE), outgoing Senator Chuck Hagel, and Congressman Tom Osborne (REF-NE-3). All three of them were part of the conservative-maverick faction of the party, having supported the war and generally being more socially conservative than the national party. The Nebraska State Reform Party was staffed by people aligned with them and in the primary they would convince David Boren to run.
The former Democratic Oklahoma Governor and Senator moved to left office in 1995 as someone politically adrift. He had increasingly felt himself grow more distant from the Democratic Party and, after much consideration, decided to switch to the Reform Party in 1996. In the same year, Boren moved to Nebraska to take a new job as President of Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. He served in that role for two years when he was approached by Mike Johanns (REF-NE) to run with him in the gubernatorial election. He had enjoyed his work at the school, but would decide to accept Johanns' offer and run for Lieutenant Governor two states over from where he was once governor. After their victory, he settled into his role with few responsibilities. In 2002, he would be drafted to run against Scott Moore whose libertarian platform was seen as too far to the left. Boren ran a pro-war, moderate conservative campaign, positioning himself as the reasonable centrist and claiming that Moore was a radical. With the endorsement of the state party and all of its major figures, it was believed that David Boren would have it. Boren would start off far ahead and spent a good part of the campaign not treating Moore as a proper threat. Scott Moore would run an intensely grassroots campaign, appealing to nonvoters and people unexcited with Boren to “not vote for politics as usual.” Each candidate would also rack up a number of national endorsements, with Senators Richard Mahoney (REF-AZ), Sam Rankin (REF-MT), Bob Smith (REF-NH), and Wes Watkins (REF-OK) and Governors Eunice Groark (REF-CT), Frank Fasi (REF-HI), Bill Weld (REF-MA), Gary Richardson (REF-OK), and Jim Justice (REF-WV) endorsing Boren. Moore received the endorsements of Senators Jerry Brown (REF-CA), Richard Fink (REF-KS), John Driscoll (REF-MT), and Ed Garvey (REF-WI) and Governors Jesse Ventura (REF-MN), Gary Johnson (REF-NM), and Donald Bailey (REF-PA). Moore was also one of the handful of Reform Party candidates to receive the endorsement of Ralph Nader (G). In an incredibly close primary race, the Secretary of State narrowly defeated the Lieutenant Governor.
Scott Moore’s controversial win was protested by party leaders on the floor of the state convention. There were claims of fraudulent votes and, during lunch break, Boren’s delegates attempted to assemble in the hall to nominate him without most of Moore’s delegates being present. Thankfully, this nonsense would swiftly come to an end when National Party Chairman Russ Verney (REF-NH) stepped in. He lambasted the delegates for trying to steal the nomination and called on the state party leadership to resign. With the backing of the national party and a huge base of small donors, Moore was able to build a treasure chest and campaign infrastructure to rival either of the main parties.
The Republicans had originally given up on the seat held by Chuck Hagel, but when he announced he was retiring, everything changed. They were tripping over themselves to challenge Hagel’s successor. Moore or Boren, either would give them a chance to take it back. From a crowded field, Hal Daub (R-NE) would win the nomination thanks to having the most name recognition and endorsements. Daub had served four terms as a Congressman from the 2nd district in the ‘80s, ending that with a senate run where he lost to incumbent Senator David Karns (R-NE) in the Republican primary. In 1990, he would win the Senate nomination and lose badly to Senator Bob Kerrey (D-NE) when he was first taking office. In this election, Democrats struggled to recruit a candidate. They would end up with Charlie Matulka, a construction worker and political unknown, who defeated longtime perennial candidate Al Hamburg in the primary.
Moore and Daub were the frontrunners the whole race, with Matulka barely being a factor. Daub would run a pro-war, traditional, conservative campaign and lead for much of the campaign. Despite this, his efforts to sell Moore as an extremist never worked. Moore was a known element and his political positions, while a bit out of step with the average voter, came across as honest. The polls remained close throughout October, never moving more than 2-points in either direction. Despite that, the vast majority of people thought Daub would win. Basically everybody did really, including Moore. He admitted it in a radio interview days after the vote.
Senator Bob Smith (REF-NH) had always been a conservative-leaning senator. Before he switched from the Republicans, his record was more conservative than 24 of his caucus members. In the Reform Party, he had the third most conservative record, behind Richard Fink (KS) and Chuck Hagel (NE). This was a benefit for him in 2000, it's what made him Richard Lamm’s VP nominee. Unfortunately, in 2002, all it did was make Democrats really want to beat him. New Hampshire was, perhaps the most swinging swing state in the US. It went to Bush (R) in 1988, Clinton (D) in 1992, Perot (REF) in 1996, and Lamm (REF) in 2000. Their governor was a Democrat, Jeanne Shaheen, while their other Senator was a Republican, Judd Gregg. Their two Congressmen were John Sununu (R-NH-1) and Charles Bass (REF-NH-2), who both picked Lamm over Kasich in the contingency election. Smith had been out of place supporting the war and leaning so far to the right. Among voters, it was like the former Republican was still one, and polls began showing a high preference for a Democrat. Governor Jeanne Shaheen would run and face no challenge for the nomination. The Republican Primary would initially see Congressman John Sununu (R-NH-1) running, but he dropped out of the race to run for governor. Instead, the race would come down to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Colantuono (R-NH) and conservative activist and perennial candidate Mike Hammond (R-NH). Colantuono won by a large margin and entered the general election with a lot of enthusiasm, despite his place in distant third.
As a third party incumbent, Smith had to defend himself from more attacks from Shaheen and Colantuono than either ever had to each other. He would also experience severe fundraising problems, as many of his libertarian and centrist leaning supporters abandoned him. In his last weeks, while his campaign was flailing, he would apologize for confirming Kasich’s Supreme Court nominees and beg the public for forgiveness in a bizarre press conference just days before the election. This didn’t go over well with the people of New Hampshire. In an insanely close three-way race, Smith came in third as the incumbent, losing to Shaheen (D) by 3,287 votes and to Colantuono (D) by 1,409 votes. There were three full recounts held of the vote to arrive at this conclusion, with the previous counts having missed a few dozen, but not nearly enough to sway the results.
The US Senate would see major changes to its membership and composition. The Reform Party would see a number of wins and loses that netted them 1 more seat, bringing their total to 17, and the Green Party would enter the chamber with two seats of their own. These two caucuses were closely aligned on some issues and would form a 19-seat block against something not discussed much yet, neoliberalism. Neoliberalism is a term a lot of people don’t really understand that we’re going to be throwing around quite a bit more from this point forward, so it’s worth getting into.
Neoliberalism is defined a few different ways by different people, but it is generally seen as a laissez faire fanatic support of the free market over everything else. Early neoliberal figures made this quite known. President Ronald Reagan is famous for saying “government is the problem” and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said “there is no such thing as society.” This is revealing about what matters to them and their ideology. They have total faith in the free market as superior to anything the government could do and legislated that way. When they came to power, Thatcher at the end of the ‘70s and Reagan in the early ‘80s, they mirrored one another as they attacked trade unions, eliminated price controls, deregulated business, took down trade barriers, instituted privatization, and, of course, austerity policies. This led to a hollowing out of social programs, a weakening of communities, and, I would argue, a weakening of democracy. The worst part is, they won. Not only are Reagan and Thatcher both well liked and remembered by this time, and their successors were unable or unwilling to challenge what they had implemented. Even though there has been a two-term Democratic President since he left office, the United States is still in the Reagan Era. Just like in the United Kingdom, where Neil Kinnock explicitly ran against austerity and won a massive parliamentary majority, but struggled to pass anything transformative.
That’s because neoliberalism by definition has to feel ubiquitous, as if the narrow set of options it gives the government are the only things it could do. To try to define what a neoliberal politician looks like, I would say it is somebody unable to think, behave, or legislate outside of market and result-focused priorities. This cannot remain in just one party and quickly became a shared set of values between the Republicans and Democrats. It’s why the Democratic Party aligned itself behind the North American Free Trade Agreement despite its unpopularity and the president who initially proposed it being voted out of office. The Reform Party is not the slightest bit immune to this, but are more like the UK’s Labour Party than the Democrats. There are members of the party, like Senators Richard Lamm (REF-CO) and John Driscoll (REF-MT) who could not put a name to it, but know they oppose it. There are other members of the Senate, like Jerry Brown (REF-CA) and incoming Senators Ralph Nader (G-CT) and Randall Forsberg (G-MA) who could tell you what neoliberalism is and oppose it. This conscious opposition to the ways the system has made itself more rigid, would result in plenty of political battles in the future.
The rest of the Senate saw very few changes in its composition. To summarize, the Reform Party would lose Senators Richard Mahoney (AZ), Richard Fink (KS), Chuck Hagel (NE), and Bob Smith (NH) and gain Senators John Binkley (AK), Wesley Clark (AR), Mark Yannone (AZ), Hunt Downer (LA), and Scott Moore (NE). The Democrats and Republicans would exchange blows, but result in no net gains or losses between them, but there were a number of high profile retirements. Senator and 2000 Democratic Presidential Nominee Bill Bradley (D-NJ) had initially entered the running for a fifth term, but decided to drop out and retire. He was replaced by billionaire Goldman Sachs executive, Jon Corzine, who ran as a Bradley-style liberal. Four Southern Republicans would retire this year. There was the already mentioned racist right wing Jesse Helms, who was replaced by the more moderate and approachable Elizabeth Dole. Dole's ascension to the Senate marked the first time a husband and wife served in the Senate together. This has happened twice in the House, with Andrew Jacobs (D-IN-10/11) and Martha Keys (D-KS-2) having served together for four years from 1975-1979 and Bill Paxon (R-NY-31/27) and Susan Molinari (R-NY-13/14) got married in 1994 and served together until Molinari retired in 1997. The other Senators were not as interesting. The extremely old former Dixiecrat Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC) would retire and the more moderate Mark Sanford (R-SC) took his place. Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN), famous for acting in the occasional movie, would retire and see the more conservative Van Hilleary (R-TN) replace him. Senator and 1996 Presidential Candidate Phil Gramm (R-TX) would also retire and Attorney General John Cornyn (R-TX) replaced him.
So this is going to be at least three more parts, but I have something special planned for the end. To mark the end of this year being the halfway point of the story, I'll be going over a lot of the major changes that have happened in the US.
Despite being a recognizable figure and running a tight campaign, Forsberg had no real chance until John Kerry voted for the Cuban War. She found this indefensible and would campaign fanatically against him. She would bring a projector to campaign rallies and play video footage of Kerry arguing against the Vietnam War. “How do ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake? But we are trying to do that, and we are doing it with thousands of rationalizations, and if you read carefully the President's last speech to the people of this country, you can see that he says, and says clearly: But the issue, gentlemen, the issue is communism, and the question is whether or not we will leave that country to the communists or whether or not we will try to give it hope to be a free people. But the point is they are not a free people now under us. They are not a free people, and we cannot fight communism all over the world, and I think we should have learned that lesson by now.” At one event, after presenting this, she got up on stage and would say “Senator Kerry, did you bump your head and forget?” She and her volunteer staff would pass out millions of pamphlets and run dozens of attack ads focusing on Kerry’s indefensibly centrist voting record. Despite all of this, Senator John Kerry never acted like he was in any electoral danger. He thought he would easily cruise to re-election with polls in November showing him at 50%, and Howell and Forsberg evenly splitting what was left. This would not last. Without the fear of a Republican taking office, and with the hard campaigning, Forsberg got more attention. People in the liberal state of Massachusetts began breaking for Forsberg in droves, supporting her anti-war, progressive platform.
Paul Wellstone was a progressive Democrat first elected in 1990, defeating incumbent Senator Rudy Boschwitz. Wellstone had won with support from union organizations like the AFL-CIO, along with progressive groups like the Americans for Democratic Action and the American Civil Liberties Union. He would oppose the Gulf War, voted against the repeal of Glass-Steagall, and, after facing criticism for voting for the Defense of Marriage Act, asked to be educated on the issue and then came out in favor of gay marriage. He was planning a run for President in 2000, until he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He would endorse Bill Bradley and helped him win Minnesota in the primary.
Tim Penny (REF-MN) polled extremely well at the beginning of the campaign, mainly coming in second but occasionally tying with incumbent Senator Paul Wellstone in polls during the Spring. Tim Penny had a wide swathe of tacit support, with most people saying they’d vote for him being Democrats not committed to Wellstone's progressivism and Republicans who thought he had a better shot than their candidate. As the Cuban War became a central issue, it all fell apart. Tim Penny was broadly anti-war but thought it’d be smart to position himself as a “pragmatic realist” who understood the war couldn’t just stop now, though should “at an appropriate time in the near or not too distant future.” This position was unappealing. Minnesota was sharply divided on the war, and began polarizing around the candidates who were strongly pro and anti-war. By the end of September, Penny was regularly polling under 30% and began to fear his whole campaign would collapse. Nothing that dramatic happened, but Penny’s third place finish was fairly distant.
Sean Haugh (REF-NC) was a libertarian member of the Reform State Party Council and a pizza delivery man who became famous for that fact when he ran for Senate in 2002. He would find himself raising millions of funds and decided to tour around the state in a car he rented with a giant plastic pizza on top. He ran on abolishing the Federal Reserve, the IRS, income and sales tax, ending the Cuban War, and getting corporate money out of politics. He would not be invited to any of the debates, but would actually host a debate against a congressional candidate, Green-aligned progressive Brad Miller (REF-NC-13), which was watched by a decently size TV audience. In the end, Elizabeth Dole easily won the Senate seat, but Haugh walked away with a respectable 19.95% of the vote.
Scott Moore had a long career in politics, beginning in 1980 when he was 20. He worked as a legislative aide until he won a seat in the legislature for himself as a 26 year old Republican. Eight years later, he was elected the Republican Secretary of State, and ran for re-election as an independent in 1998, having won the endorsements of the Republican and Reform Parties. When Mike Johanns (REF-NE) became governor, Moore joined the Reform Party. He endorsed Senator Dick Lamm (REF-CO) in his presidential campaign and, in 2002, would run to succeed outgoing Senator Chuck Hagel (REF-NE). Hagel did not seek a second term, but did not publicly disclose why he was leaving office. It would become clear in January of 2003. Moore ran to succeed him but, unlike Senator Hagel, ran as an anti-war libertarian candidate with the advice of Senator John Driscoll (REF-MT) and Governor Jesse Ventura (REF-MN). His platform included decriminalizing all personal actions that do not harm others, like euthanasia, loitering, prostitution, and the War on Drugs, and a Constitutional Amendment that would directly tie spending cuts to tax cuts. This was a surprise to many, as Moore had been a fairly mainstream Republican before this transformation. His nomination was opposed by Governor Mike Johanns (REF-NE), outgoing Senator Chuck Hagel, and Congressman Tom Osborne (REF-NE-3). All three of them were part of the conservative-maverick faction of the party, having supported the war and generally being more socially conservative than the national party. The Nebraska State Reform Party was staffed by people aligned with them and in the primary they would convince David Boren to run.
The former Democratic Oklahoma Governor and Senator moved to left office in 1995 as someone politically adrift. He had increasingly felt himself grow more distant from the Democratic Party and, after much consideration, decided to switch to the Reform Party in 1996. In the same year, Boren moved to Nebraska to take a new job as President of Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. He served in that role for two years when he was approached by Mike Johanns (REF-NE) to run with him in the gubernatorial election. He had enjoyed his work at the school, but would decide to accept Johanns' offer and run for Lieutenant Governor two states over from where he was once governor. After their victory, he settled into his role with few responsibilities. In 2002, he would be drafted to run against Scott Moore whose libertarian platform was seen as too far to the left. Boren ran a pro-war, moderate conservative campaign, positioning himself as the reasonable centrist and claiming that Moore was a radical. With the endorsement of the state party and all of its major figures, it was believed that David Boren would have it. Boren would start off far ahead and spent a good part of the campaign not treating Moore as a proper threat. Scott Moore would run an intensely grassroots campaign, appealing to nonvoters and people unexcited with Boren to “not vote for politics as usual.” Each candidate would also rack up a number of national endorsements, with Senators Richard Mahoney (REF-AZ), Sam Rankin (REF-MT), Bob Smith (REF-NH), and Wes Watkins (REF-OK) and Governors Eunice Groark (REF-CT), Frank Fasi (REF-HI), Bill Weld (REF-MA), Gary Richardson (REF-OK), and Jim Justice (REF-WV) endorsing Boren. Moore received the endorsements of Senators Jerry Brown (REF-CA), Richard Fink (REF-KS), John Driscoll (REF-MT), and Ed Garvey (REF-WI) and Governors Jesse Ventura (REF-MN), Gary Johnson (REF-NM), and Donald Bailey (REF-PA). Moore was also one of the handful of Reform Party candidates to receive the endorsement of Ralph Nader (G). In an incredibly close primary race, the Secretary of State narrowly defeated the Lieutenant Governor.
The Republicans had originally given up on the seat held by Chuck Hagel, but when he announced he was retiring, everything changed. They were tripping over themselves to challenge Hagel’s successor. Moore or Boren, either would give them a chance to take it back. From a crowded field, Hal Daub (R-NE) would win the nomination thanks to having the most name recognition and endorsements. Daub had served four terms as a Congressman from the 2nd district in the ‘80s, ending that with a senate run where he lost to incumbent Senator David Karns (R-NE) in the Republican primary. In 1990, he would win the Senate nomination and lose badly to Senator Bob Kerrey (D-NE) when he was first taking office. In this election, Democrats struggled to recruit a candidate. They would end up with Charlie Matulka, a construction worker and political unknown, who defeated longtime perennial candidate Al Hamburg in the primary.
Moore and Daub were the frontrunners the whole race, with Matulka barely being a factor. Daub would run a pro-war, traditional, conservative campaign and lead for much of the campaign. Despite this, his efforts to sell Moore as an extremist never worked. Moore was a known element and his political positions, while a bit out of step with the average voter, came across as honest. The polls remained close throughout October, never moving more than 2-points in either direction. Despite that, the vast majority of people thought Daub would win. Basically everybody did really, including Moore. He admitted it in a radio interview days after the vote.
Senator Bob Smith (REF-NH) had always been a conservative-leaning senator. Before he switched from the Republicans, his record was more conservative than 24 of his caucus members. In the Reform Party, he had the third most conservative record, behind Richard Fink (KS) and Chuck Hagel (NE). This was a benefit for him in 2000, it's what made him Richard Lamm’s VP nominee. Unfortunately, in 2002, all it did was make Democrats really want to beat him. New Hampshire was, perhaps the most swinging swing state in the US. It went to Bush (R) in 1988, Clinton (D) in 1992, Perot (REF) in 1996, and Lamm (REF) in 2000. Their governor was a Democrat, Jeanne Shaheen, while their other Senator was a Republican, Judd Gregg. Their two Congressmen were John Sununu (R-NH-1) and Charles Bass (REF-NH-2), who both picked Lamm over Kasich in the contingency election. Smith had been out of place supporting the war and leaning so far to the right. Among voters, it was like the former Republican was still one, and polls began showing a high preference for a Democrat. Governor Jeanne Shaheen would run and face no challenge for the nomination. The Republican Primary would initially see Congressman John Sununu (R-NH-1) running, but he dropped out of the race to run for governor. Instead, the race would come down to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Colantuono (R-NH) and conservative activist and perennial candidate Mike Hammond (R-NH). Colantuono won by a large margin and entered the general election with a lot of enthusiasm, despite his place in distant third.
As a third party incumbent, Smith had to defend himself from more attacks from Shaheen and Colantuono than either ever had to each other. He would also experience severe fundraising problems, as many of his libertarian and centrist leaning supporters abandoned him. In his last weeks, while his campaign was flailing, he would apologize for confirming Kasich’s Supreme Court nominees and beg the public for forgiveness in a bizarre press conference just days before the election. This didn’t go over well with the people of New Hampshire. In an insanely close three-way race, Smith came in third as the incumbent, losing to Shaheen (D) by 3,287 votes and to Colantuono (D) by 1,409 votes. There were three full recounts held of the vote to arrive at this conclusion, with the previous counts having missed a few dozen, but not nearly enough to sway the results.
The US Senate would see major changes to its membership and composition. The Reform Party would see a number of wins and loses that netted them 1 more seat, bringing their total to 17, and the Green Party would enter the chamber with two seats of their own. These two caucuses were closely aligned on some issues and would form a 19-seat block against something not discussed much yet, neoliberalism. Neoliberalism is a term a lot of people don’t really understand that we’re going to be throwing around quite a bit more from this point forward, so it’s worth getting into.
Neoliberalism is defined a few different ways by different people, but it is generally seen as a laissez faire fanatic support of the free market over everything else. Early neoliberal figures made this quite known. President Ronald Reagan is famous for saying “government is the problem” and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said “there is no such thing as society.” This is revealing about what matters to them and their ideology. They have total faith in the free market as superior to anything the government could do and legislated that way. When they came to power, Thatcher at the end of the ‘70s and Reagan in the early ‘80s, they mirrored one another as they attacked trade unions, eliminated price controls, deregulated business, took down trade barriers, instituted privatization, and, of course, austerity policies. This led to a hollowing out of social programs, a weakening of communities, and, I would argue, a weakening of democracy. The worst part is, they won. Not only are Reagan and Thatcher both well liked and remembered by this time, and their successors were unable or unwilling to challenge what they had implemented. Even though there has been a two-term Democratic President since he left office, the United States is still in the Reagan Era. Just like in the United Kingdom, where Neil Kinnock explicitly ran against austerity and won a massive parliamentary majority, but struggled to pass anything transformative.
That’s because neoliberalism by definition has to feel ubiquitous, as if the narrow set of options it gives the government are the only things it could do. To try to define what a neoliberal politician looks like, I would say it is somebody unable to think, behave, or legislate outside of market and result-focused priorities. This cannot remain in just one party and quickly became a shared set of values between the Republicans and Democrats. It’s why the Democratic Party aligned itself behind the North American Free Trade Agreement despite its unpopularity and the president who initially proposed it being voted out of office. The Reform Party is not the slightest bit immune to this, but are more like the UK’s Labour Party than the Democrats. There are members of the party, like Senators Richard Lamm (REF-CO) and John Driscoll (REF-MT) who could not put a name to it, but know they oppose it. There are other members of the Senate, like Jerry Brown (REF-CA) and incoming Senators Ralph Nader (G-CT) and Randall Forsberg (G-MA) who could tell you what neoliberalism is and oppose it. This conscious opposition to the ways the system has made itself more rigid, would result in plenty of political battles in the future.
The rest of the Senate saw very few changes in its composition. To summarize, the Reform Party would lose Senators Richard Mahoney (AZ), Richard Fink (KS), Chuck Hagel (NE), and Bob Smith (NH) and gain Senators John Binkley (AK), Wesley Clark (AR), Mark Yannone (AZ), Hunt Downer (LA), and Scott Moore (NE). The Democrats and Republicans would exchange blows, but result in no net gains or losses between them, but there were a number of high profile retirements. Senator and 2000 Democratic Presidential Nominee Bill Bradley (D-NJ) had initially entered the running for a fifth term, but decided to drop out and retire. He was replaced by billionaire Goldman Sachs executive, Jon Corzine, who ran as a Bradley-style liberal. Four Southern Republicans would retire this year. There was the already mentioned racist right wing Jesse Helms, who was replaced by the more moderate and approachable Elizabeth Dole. Dole's ascension to the Senate marked the first time a husband and wife served in the Senate together. This has happened twice in the House, with Andrew Jacobs (D-IN-10/11) and Martha Keys (D-KS-2) having served together for four years from 1975-1979 and Bill Paxon (R-NY-31/27) and Susan Molinari (R-NY-13/14) got married in 1994 and served together until Molinari retired in 1997. The other Senators were not as interesting. The extremely old former Dixiecrat Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC) would retire and the more moderate Mark Sanford (R-SC) took his place. Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN), famous for acting in the occasional movie, would retire and see the more conservative Van Hilleary (R-TN) replace him. Senator and 1996 Presidential Candidate Phil Gramm (R-TX) would also retire and Attorney General John Cornyn (R-TX) replaced him.
So this is going to be at least three more parts, but I have something special planned for the end. To mark the end of this year being the halfway point of the story, I'll be going over a lot of the major changes that have happened in the US.
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I understand that, they'll be out of office as the executive of New York City and State for at least 12 years ITTL. But also, as a New Yorker, I feel like I grew up watching the Dems in my state repeatedly clench defeat from the jaws of victory. Sometimes, it almost felt like they were trying to lose. Without the Reform Party in either of these elections, they would have won landslides.
Honestly not sure! He doesn't scream super free-trade to me and he's well known for being moderate. I think I'd put him in a category of people slightly to the left of Sam Nunn (D-GA), Wendell Ford (D-KY), and Robert Byrd (D-WV), but similar in an important way. They're all Democrats because they have been for their career so far and if they had just woken up brand new to politics in TTL's modern day 2002, they'd be more likely to join Reform than the Democrats.
I see, so states with one party dominance are going to be battleground states now? And I just realize that there are four parties now in the Senate. As well, as four different parties having Governors in offices. America is taking an unpredictable turn in this timeline.
This is just glorious. Is it inspired by RL events?
Yeah, states with big conservative and liberal populations now have a choice that doesn’t always poll at 1%.
And yes! Green Party is in Congress while the Constitution Party has two governors. I’m diving into the Constitution Party and its governorships in the next part.
Same! I specifically love when there are a good number of parties of varying power facing off.
Also, we’re still pretty much only in OTL political parties, but we’ll see what the next 10 years bring!
Sorta! The idea comes from a video that circulated about 10 years ago, but doesn’t seem to be on Youtube anymore. It was a video that cut together footage of Kerry giving that speech in the ‘70s and Kerry in the ‘10s arguing for bombing Syria sometime before he left the Senate to become Secretary of State. It was cut together so it seemed like they were arguing with each other.
Very cool to see Sean Haugh mentioned in this timeline. He was the friend of a few friends and lived in a house I visited a lot my freshman year in college.
Snipped from the main post by President Benedict Arnold:
Sean Haugh (REF-NC) was a libertarian member of the Reform State Party Council and a pizza delivery man who became famous for that fact when he ran for Senate in 2002. He would find himself raising millions of funds and decided to tour around the state in a car he rented with a giant plastic pizza on top. He ran on abolishing the Federal Reserve, the IRS, income and sales tax, ending the Cuban War, and getting corporate money out of politics. He would not be invited to any of the debates, but would actually host a debate against a congressional candidate, Green-aligned progressive Brad Miller (REF-NC-13), which was watched by a decently size TV audience. In the end, Elizabeth Dole easily won the Senate seat, but Haugh walked away with a respectable 19.95% of the vote.
Snipped from the main post by President Benedict Arnold:
Sean Haugh (REF-NC) was a libertarian member of the Reform State Party Council and a pizza delivery man who became famous for that fact when he ran for Senate in 2002. He would find himself raising millions of funds and decided to tour around the state in a car he rented with a giant plastic pizza on top. He ran on abolishing the Federal Reserve, the IRS, income and sales tax, ending the Cuban War, and getting corporate money out of politics. He would not be invited to any of the debates, but would actually host a debate against a congressional candidate, Green-aligned progressive Brad Miller (REF-NC-13), which was watched by a decently size TV audience. In the end, Elizabeth Dole easily won the Senate seat, but Haugh walked away with a respectable 19.95% of the vote.
What other "major" third parties are there besides the Reform and Green parties ITTL right now?
The constitution party, also known as the U.S taxpayers’ party. Pretty sure they have governors now.