Post by Rick Warder on Dec 11, 2005 10:49:40 GMT -5
As Homer Simpson said, "First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the sugar."
If you want to get your candidates elected and strengthen your party, you will have to engage in fundraising. This is done through short blurbs which describe the targeted audience, the general style and theme of the fundraiser and what was said at the fundraiser. Depending on the quality of the fundraiser, money will start flowing in through political donations to either you directly, if an independent, or for your party.
There are some limitations on fundraising. In a given week, a character can only conduct two minor and one major fundraising events. A minor event is capped at 250 words. A major event can run up to 500 words.
This is designed so that no player gets burnt out during election season or manages to overload the other players by writing novel-length fundraisers. Also, the GM can only read so much!
As the election deadline draws near, each party leader is responsible for submitting a 'battle plan' which details how much money is to be spent for attack ads, organizing activity and in which specific states. If for House elections a special effort is to be made to secure a specific district, please make a note of that.
The cost for running a campaign in a state is determined by the number of electoral votes that state has. For each electoral vote, the following costs apply:
Advertising
Air time, 1 minute (for ads, negative or positive, etc.): $5,000
Full page ad in a regional mass newspaper: $10,000
Minor endorsement (mayor, local leader): $20,000
Major endorsement (governor, national figure): $50,000
Regional tour (visiting towns and cities): $100,000
Policy speech (lay out your platform, gets coverage by all major media): $200,000
Organizing
Voter registration (get the new voters!): $25,000
Rally volunteers (recruit party henchmen): $50,000
Voter turnout (to get out the vote on election day): $100,000
For example, in Arizona, a policy speech would cost 10 electoral votes x $250,000, or $2,500,000. In California, with 55 electoral votes, it would cost $13,750,000.
Talk is cheap, but politics ain't!
NOTE: Although no characters are personally under threat of losing their office (representatives, senators) you are still fighting for your party's majority in Congress. A solid campaign will win seats, a bad campaign will lead to a loss of seats, and this will weak your party's ability to pass or resist legislation.
If you want to get your candidates elected and strengthen your party, you will have to engage in fundraising. This is done through short blurbs which describe the targeted audience, the general style and theme of the fundraiser and what was said at the fundraiser. Depending on the quality of the fundraiser, money will start flowing in through political donations to either you directly, if an independent, or for your party.
There are some limitations on fundraising. In a given week, a character can only conduct two minor and one major fundraising events. A minor event is capped at 250 words. A major event can run up to 500 words.
This is designed so that no player gets burnt out during election season or manages to overload the other players by writing novel-length fundraisers. Also, the GM can only read so much!
As the election deadline draws near, each party leader is responsible for submitting a 'battle plan' which details how much money is to be spent for attack ads, organizing activity and in which specific states. If for House elections a special effort is to be made to secure a specific district, please make a note of that.
The cost for running a campaign in a state is determined by the number of electoral votes that state has. For each electoral vote, the following costs apply:
Advertising
Air time, 1 minute (for ads, negative or positive, etc.): $5,000
Full page ad in a regional mass newspaper: $10,000
Minor endorsement (mayor, local leader): $20,000
Major endorsement (governor, national figure): $50,000
Regional tour (visiting towns and cities): $100,000
Policy speech (lay out your platform, gets coverage by all major media): $200,000
Organizing
Voter registration (get the new voters!): $25,000
Rally volunteers (recruit party henchmen): $50,000
Voter turnout (to get out the vote on election day): $100,000
For example, in Arizona, a policy speech would cost 10 electoral votes x $250,000, or $2,500,000. In California, with 55 electoral votes, it would cost $13,750,000.
Talk is cheap, but politics ain't!
NOTE: Although no characters are personally under threat of losing their office (representatives, senators) you are still fighting for your party's majority in Congress. A solid campaign will win seats, a bad campaign will lead to a loss of seats, and this will weak your party's ability to pass or resist legislation.