The Found Arcana - Chapter 11 [IC] Options

[Tecumseh]

<<Saturday Morning - 10:30 - April 8, 2079 - SIS Redmond, Touristville>>

It's April, when spring showers intermix with chilly winds and unpredictable sun. It's also... election season?

Indeed it is. Five months ago, the previous Governor, Kenneth Brackhaven, responded to a new grand jury empanelment by liquidating his assets, packing up and leaving town just before the regularly scheduled November elections. Of course this threw the entire sprawl establishment into chaos. The gubernatorial election was postponed a few months, presumably give the megacorps an opportunity to respond to the new political situation.

(So what led to Governor Brackhaven walking away from his life in Seattle and fleeing to a private island in the Caribbean League? Word is that District Attorney Dana Oaks finally got her hands on the hard evidence she needed for a grand jury indictment to stick. The charges against Brackhaven primarily include his involvement in the Operation Daybreak Scandal as well as the Parker-Quinn Embezzlement Scandal, the Edmund Jeffries Disappearance, the Sunset Vacations ad-buy scam, and the cover-up of the Copycat Mayan Cutter Murders.)

After Brackhaven’s abrupt departure, Natoko Munakata, the Commissioner of Public Works, was sworn in as interim governor, but she made it clear that she was not interested in a regular term as governor and did not put her name forward as a candidate. The short election cycle also prevented both the public and the megacorps from vetting the candidates or deciding who their best choice actually was. It also opened the field to some candidates that would never even be on the ballot in a “normal” election year.

In February, the field of eight candidates divided up the vote and it became clear that no one candidate would have the majority needed to claim the office. Nikola Taul (Democrat) and Corinne Potter (Technocrat) were the two candidates with the highest number of votes so a runoff election between the two was scheduled. That runoff now approaches and is one month away.

Nikola Taul (Democrat) is the charismatic Mayor of the Downtown District. She has the name recognition and she’s kept Downtown looking good and feeling safe, which the corps appreciate, but she has also spent a lot of public money, which they don’t.

Corinne Potter (Technocrat) had a much different route to the ticket. Howard Cannon was the surprise Technocratic nominee, that is until he wound up dead on a Snohomish street. After his death, his campaign manager, Corinne Potter, made a heartfelt speech to the city and suddenly his former supporters were pushing for Potter to take his place on the ballot, she did just that.

The residents of the Bellevue Highlands are fairly evenly split between the two, and exchanging opinions over fences is a popular pasttime. The residents of Redmond are largely unaware that there is an election, and most of them will write-in various candidates ranging from Karl Kombatmage to Neil the Ork Barbarian.

It is against this backdrop that we find our intrepid agency puttering away at their Redmond headquarters on a Saturday morning, perhaps finalizing reports about philandering spouses, or background checks on potential employees, or due diligence before a business deal is finalized, or doing some routine maintenance so that the building doesn't collapse. You know, the boring stuff that isn't very dangerous but still helps keep a roof over your head, both metaphorically and literally.

[OOC: Open RP for a couple days until Beta is back. Please stay in the vicinity of Redmond HQ for when your next potential employer comes knocking.]