Jesus to run for President

Seattle, Washington

In an exclusive news story, the Atlasian Observer can reveal that Jesus, of the Jesus Christ Party, intends to run for President of the Republic of Atlasia in the forthcoming February elections. The Observer was informed of this revelation by a senior source close to the prospective candidate.

Jesus has had a somewhat colourful history in Atlasia - he originally formed the Jesus Christ Party along with about 3 or 4 friends in an attempt to troll the forum, giving rise to what Demrepdan dubbed The War on Trolls. Eventually, Jesus reformed however and held minor positions in the Pacifician government, before becoming District 5 Senator in July 2006. He held that position for approximately a month before becoming Pacific Governor, a position he has held ever since.

Jesus will be expected to poll well in the Pacific where his political machine is incredibly strong and will cause him to carry at least 80% of first preferences. It is unclear at this time how much support he would have in the rest of the country.

24 November Presidential poll results

29 votes were cast; Political affiliation breakdown was skewed by a technical error which will be corrected for the next poll.
Presidential Support
Jas - 20
Sensei - 14
BaconKing - 8
Sam Spade - 8
MAS117 - 6
WillyWoz - 2
Gporter - 1
Write-ins
Jesus - 2
Polnut - 2
PBrunsel - 1
HappyWarrior - 1
Dr Cynic - 1
DemoHawk - 1

Average Ratings for Issues
Recognition of America independent of Atlasia - 3.55
Senate elected through PR - 3.03
Expansion of judicial activity - 2.51
Abolition of the Regions - 3.24
Introduction of Parliamentary System - 3.24

Atlasian Observer Polling - Presidential election Feb08

What is your political affiliation?

Freedom Party
Jesus Christ Party
National Liberal Coalition
Progressive Liberal Party
Republican Party
Independent
Other

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Which of the following possible candidates would you consider preferencing highly in the February 2008 Presidential election.


BaconKing

Gporter

Jas

MAS117

Sam Spade

Sensei

WillyWoz

Other (write-in)

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How desirable do you consider the following reforms to be? (1 is highly desirable; 5 is highly undesirable)

Atlasian recognition of the United States
1

2

3

4

5

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Abolition of Senate districts, moving to election of Senators by PR
1

2

3

4

5

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Expansion of judicial activity by creating a larger legal framework
1

2

3

4

5

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Abolition of the Regions
1

2

3

4

5

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Change to a Parliamentary system of government
1

2

3

4

5

create web form

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Thank you for taking this poll.

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October 2007 Past Presidents Poll

When did you first register as a voter in Atlasia?

20042005 20062007

The following questions all ask you to grade the job performance of the Presidential administrations since the Founding. If you do not feel able to give an educated answer, please select the "Insufficient knowledge to answer" option.



Nym90 (February to July 2004)

Vice-President Harry (February to April 2004)

Vice-President Al (May to July 2004)
Very Favourable

Somewhat Favourable

Indifferent

Somewhat Unfavourable

Very Unfavourable

Insufficient knowledge to answer

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Gustaf (July to August 2004)

Vice-President Supersoulty (July to August 2004)

Very Favourable

Somewhat Favourable

Indifferent

Somewhat Unfavourable

Very Unfavourable

Insufficient knowledge to answer

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John F Kennedy (August to November 2004)

Vice-President Andrew Berger (August to November 2004)

Very Favourable

Somewhat Favourable

Indifferent

Somewhat Unfavourable

Very Unfavourable

Insufficient knowledge to answer

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PBrunsel (November 2004 to March 2005)

Vice-President Keystone Phil (November 2004 to March 2005)

Very Favourable

Somewhat Favourable

Indifferent

Somewhat Unfavourable

Very Unfavourable

Insufficient knowledge to answer

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True Democrat (March to April 2005)

Vice-President Alcon (March to April 2005)

Very Favourable

Somewhat Favourable

Indifferent

Somewhat Unfavourable

Very Unfavourable

Insufficient knowledge to answer

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Alcon (April to July 2005)

Vice-President Peter (April to May 2005)

Very Favourable

Somewhat Favourable

Indifferent

Somewhat Unfavourable

Very Unfavourable

Insufficient knowledge to answer

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Siege40 (July to November 2005)

Vice-President Emsworth (July to November 2005)

Very Favourable

Somewhat Favourable

Indifferent

Somewhat Unfavourable

Very Unfavourable

Insufficient knowledge to answer

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Joe Republic (November 2005 to March 2006)

Vice-President Defarge (November 2005 to January 2006)

Vice-President Ebowed (January to March 2006)

Very Favourable

Somewhat Favourable

Indifferent

Somewhat Unfavourable

Very Unfavourable

Insufficient knowledge to answer

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Ebowed (March to November 2006)

Vice-President Q (March to September 2006)

Vice-President TCash101 (September to November 2006)

Very Favourable

Somewhat Favourable

Indifferent

Somewhat Unfavourable

Very Unfavourable

Insufficient knowledge to answer

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Al (November to December 2006)

Vice-President Doctor Cynic (November to December 2006)

Very Favourable

Somewhat Favourable

Indifferent

Somewhat Unfavourable

Very Unfavourable

Insufficient knowledge to answer

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Doctor Cynic (December 2006)

Vice-President True Democrat (December 2006)

Very Favourable

Somewhat Favourable

Indifferent

Somewhat Unfavourable

Very Unfavourable

Insufficient knowledge to answer

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True Democrat (December 2006 to March 2007)

Vice-President Afleitch (January to March 2007)

Very Favourable

Somewhat Favourable

Indifferent

Somewhat Unfavourable

Very Unfavourable

Insufficient knowledge to answer

---

Afleitch (March to July 2007)

Vice-President Yates (March to May 2007)

Keystone Phil (June to July 2007)

Very Favourable

Somewhat Favourable

Indifferent

Somewhat Unfavourable

Very Unfavourable

Insufficient knowledge to answer

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Colin Wixted (July 2007 to present)

Vice-Presdient Jas (July 2007 to present)

Very Favourable

Somewhat Favourable

Indifferent

Somewhat Unfavourable

Very Unfavourable

Insufficient knowledge to answer

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In your opinion who has been the greatest Atlasian President?


Nym90
Gustaf
John F Kennedy
PBrunsel
True Democrat (I)
Alcon
Siege40
Joe Republic
Ebowed
Al
Doctor Cynic
True Democrat (II)
Afleitch
Colin Wixted

free forms

The Seanad races

Fort Wayne, IN

Whilst all eyes are on the Presidential race - we should not allow ourselves to forget the Senate races. As ever, we have the Regions up with the President. After spending little more than 2 minutes reading the Candidacy Declaration Thread, here is the state of play:

Mideast - Al has been elected and then retired from the Senate so many times now that you may have missed his latest announcement, but he's doing just that. At present there are no declared candidates - who knows? I might run.

Midwest - Lewis Trondheim is running again, and with no declared opposition, he looks like the firm favourite, but never misunderestimate the Midwest and its capacity for doing different.

Northeast - Verily, after winning appointment to the Senate is now seeking a term of his own. No declared opposition.

Pacific - I'm not sure if Rob has declared his intentions, but there is a queue for his seat - Everett, Robert Stark (if he's legal) and hughento have all declared candidacy for the seat. Whether any campaigning for the seat will actually take place is a different question entirely.

Southeast - No declared candidates, though surely Sam Spade won't be turning down another turn of the wheel?

All in all, not that good at the moment. We can only pray for more candidates.

The Progressive Primary

Nyman D.C.

It is about time I sweep off the cobwebs from this dormant tabloid and comment on the news of the day a little more.....

The Progressive Primary - it could perhaps be declared one of the modern wonders of the Atlasian world - a primary that suddenly runs the risk of actually mattering. There are very few Atlasians who remember the first primaries in Atlasia before the February 2004 contests, and even fewer who participated in them. Those contests mattered - they set up the Nym v. Supersoulty contest, and candidates paid genuine attention to them.

The Progressive Primary does not have the same impact as those primaries, and it never could - the electoral system is much friendlier to any candidate who chooses to stay in the race despite poor primary polling, and perhaps more importantly, remains friendly to any winning candidate if lower placed candidates stay in the race. IRV dispels many of the potential problems of a split leftist/centrist/rightist vote (though they can exist in certain, extreme circumstances). Also, the partisan dealignment, whereby ties of individuals to a party are much weaker because they have no real world equivalent, has also meant the primaries are not as strong as they could be. Ultimately no candidate fears the wrath of members of their own party if they fail to drop out after a poor showing - the Progressive Primary is not run by a Party leadership at all.

Instead, the Progressive Primary is being run by one man for the benefit of the general left of the political spectrum, and even if it doesn't provide some benefit to the left, at least it has provided some interesting viewing until the actual election takes place. That man is EarlAW - he has constructed the primary from the ground up - he assembled a voter list; he decided a programme for the primaries across the Regions; he designed a system for awarding delegates; and he administers the whole thing.

How much will the Progressive Primary matter? Only time can tell, though it has a much better chance than many that have gone before it - it has grabbed the attention of many on the left who have voted without prompt, and lots of candidates have paid attention to it (as opposed to taking it for granted which used to happen with internal party primaries).

Its ultimate test will be this - does the winner of the primary get a push out of the final convention and actually do better than many of those who he beats? Only time will tell.

Electoral Reform: Another Round

Next up for the Senate is Senator Gabu's Electoral Reform Bill. Like recent forum affairs proposals (namely the secret ballot amendment and the forum affairs split), the Bill does not appear to have undergone much consultation. Either the Bill must undergo a lot of work in the coming days and weeks in the Senate, or it must reject the legislation, else it risks quite literally causing the sky to fall.

The full totality of the impact of the Bill would probably cause a good number of votes to be declared invalid (the Bill offers very little discretion to a voting booth administrator), and certainly many more than at present. One of the most poorly considered sections is Section 2:

To vote in an election, any eligible voter must make a copy of the ballot provided by the administrator, make some form of mark in one and only one of the spaces provided in clause 3 of section 1, and then post the completed ballot in the voting booth.

In a Presidential election with say the following tickets:
Porce/Q
John Ford/True Democrat
Ilikeverin/PBrunsel

The "usable ballot" described in §1, Clause 2 would look something like this:

[ ] - Porce/Q
[ ] - John Ford/True Democrat
[ ] - Ilikeverin/PBrunsel
[ ] - None of the Above
[ ] - Write-in: _____________________

A voter must then make one (and only one) mark in the spaces provided to the left. If the voter were to however cast a vote like this:

Ilikeverin/PBrunsel

The vote must be held as invalid by a simple construction of the Bill's operative clauses: When one says that the voter "must make a copy of the ballot provided", that leaves no discretion, and provides none for the administrator either. He would have to discount that vote. Given Atlasia's historic prevelance of voting in the second manner that I note above, the Bill presents a threat to a fair electoral process, potentially binding the SoFA to a ridiculous standard of counting votes.

Senate News Update

Nyman D.C.

The TVA Privatisation Bill was roundly defeated last night, with 9 Senators voting against it. The Bill had been widely criticised for being badly written, "butchered with ammendments"[sic] or simply making bad economic sense. In the end, an overriding sense that the short term impact of a $100 billion windfall could not outweigh the long term economic drawbacks such as loss of revenue. Whilst some might considered it 17 wasted days, it was good to see the body actually debate the issues for once.

The Species Act of 2005 has also been successfully amended, thus reducing the fines that it imposes on potential offenders. Passage was achieved without any significant controversy as much of the substance had been debated previously by the Senate.

With little debate, Senator Jake's Comprehensive Engergy Plan Bill has gone to a vote, which has already emerged as closer than might have been expected. Senators Texasgurl, CheeseWhiz and Bono have all opposed the legislation, with Senators Wixted and DanielX abstaining, without raising so much as a finger to signal their dissent when debate was open. If anything, the TVA debate showed that good debate could create informed consensus, hopefully the Senate will heed that lesson in future.

Presently on the floor is the Public Interest Amendment, proposed by Senator Al under the general auspisces of allowing the Senate to legislate on public interest grounds. However, it has no formal language as yet, and despite some suggestions offered by the editor of this paper, it looks likely to fall into abeyance, especially as Senator Al has indicated that he will soon retire from the Senate.

Republic Declines to Seek Re-election; Porce Enters Race

Dayton, OH and Charleston, SC

President Joe Republic declined to seek re-election to the Presidency yesterday in a move that will undoubtedly completely reshape the entire campaign. Citing a lack of time and energy to both run a campaign or the country, President Republic gracefully exitted a race that he never actually enterred.

The news was met with a mixed reaction: Governor John Ford, a Presidential hopeful, paid tribute to the President's service and expressed regret for a campaign that has taken on a very bitter personal note in recent days. A number of other citizens thanked the President for his service, whilst Senator Jake was his usual self, suggesting that Republic's exit from the race was simply a cover for the fact that he would lose heavily.

Shortly after Republic's announcement, the sitting Vice-President, Porce, declared his intention to seek the office of President, promising an agenda, and presumably a Vice-President of his own, in the coming days and weeks. He also took the opportunity to place himself firmly on forum affairs by immediately coming out in favour of the proposed FPTP-with-runoff voting system and highlighting his impeccable record in the Senate.

Whether any prominent Atlasians who had previously pledged themselves to Republic will use his exit from the race as a reason to start up their own campaign remains to be seen, however, it is expected that Porce will carry the majority of Joe Republic's supporters over to his own campaign.

National Governor's Alliance Proposed

Pacific Governor John Ford today proposed that a more formal setting for the Governors of Atlasia's five Regions to discuss matters of mutual national concern that fall outside the purview of the Senate.

Governor-Elect Afleitch, due to be sworn in today, and Governor Jas have both expressed strong interest in the group, as have all declared candidates for the Northeast and Southeast Senate races that occur within the next month. The structure of how such a group would operate will likely be fleshed out in the coming days and weeks.

Governor Ford has already expressed an interest in discussing both the minimum wage and sex crime legislation. Noting that the federal minimum wage was struck down in Bono v. Atlasia II, Ford called on all Regions to pass minimum wage legislation. Research indicates that three of the five Regions (Pacific, Mideast, Southeast) have minimum wage Laws on their books, whilst the Midwest has not yet considered the issue, and the Northeast rejected a minimum wage in September 2005.

Governor Ford also called for a mandatory minimum jail term for those convicted of sex crimes against those under 12 years old. He claims there is already a minimum 35 year jail term for the Pacific, but we have no way to actually check this given that there is no reliable source for Pacific statutes. The Mideast has instituted a maximum life term for crimes of this nature in the majority of circumstances; The Southeast statutes seem to indicate that conviction on two counts of this crime would result in a fifty year jail term. Research indicates that neither the Northeast nor the Midwest have considered similar initiatives.

Presidential Race: Hostilities Renewed

Those of you with better judgement have undoubtedly avoided this thread, which seems to articulate the bitterness of this campaign into one place. I thought reading the Presidential debates was painful, but obviously this reporter needs to work on his pain threshold.

To summarise the thread: It starts off with Supersoulty challenging President Joe Republic to declare his intention to run for re-election and debate Governor John Ford. Next comes perhaps the most intelligent reply in the thread from Philip: "Shut up, you're annoying."

The thread then descends downhill into backbitting exchanges between John Ford and Vice-President Porce, including what has to be one of the more entertaining conspiracy theories I have read in a while. Suffice to say, I know that it's total and utter garbage, but its fun reading nonetheless.

The most amusing thing about the entire charade is that the Republic announcement was imminent, and likely before the end of Thursday. Given that the Republic campaign cannot be seen as bowing to Supersoulty's political stunt, the announcement will have to be delayed.

John Ford continued to look like a man on a mission of trying to get elected - if he continues on like this, he probably will. If you throw enough mud it sticks after all, but if he vilifies the President continually, you can rest assured that many Republic supporters will simply slip away after the election or just refuse to play ball with him. Being the best candidate on forum affairs is one thing, but there has to be a forum left to apply those policies to.

Nobody came out of this exchange looking good: For the most part, Joe Republic refused to engage the debate, which was undoubtedly the best idea. Another undoubted beneficiary of this mess will be Ilikeverin/PBrunsel. This paper has now come to the opinion that they are the possibility of them making the last round is so strong that it will poll not only on a John Ford v. Joe Republic match-up, but also Verin v. Ford and Verin v. Republic in this coming weekend's polling.

Senate elections & News round-up

Nyman D.C.

The Senate appears to be returning to the efficiency of the days of old when Emsworth ran it. The Senate is making good progress on various bills, even if most are being rejected or withdrawn.

The Deregistration Bill passed unanimously into Law late on Tuesday, thus hopefully bringing some order to a situation that was rife with legal chaos. The Senate has also passed a supplemental appropriation to help deal with the aftermath of the Katrina tragedy.

The TVA Privatisation Bill continues to occupy a spot on the Senate floor, and considering that its been on the floor two weeks now, its somewhat disappointing to see that despite all the possible changes that have been suggested (e.g. part privatisation), none have actually seen a vote before the whole Senate. Debate continues to go back and forth, with no end in sight.

Several other bills have been quickly withdrawn by their sponsors in recent days, including two bills from Al that were in need of substantial work and another from CheeseWhiz that was criticised as unneeded. The Senate is making good progress on an amendment to the Species Act of 2005, and looks set to pass it before week's end.

Election Update
Cheyenne, WY

Midwest Lieutenant Govenor and Senate hopeful Everett dropped out of her race for the Midwest Senate seat today, citing a lack of forseeable time in which to be active. She had been leading in most polls commissioned in spite of a relatively quiet campaign. She endorsed Associate Justice Ernest for the seat, praising his experience and competence. She has declined to rule out a run in the future.

Today also saw the entry of our first candidate into the Pacific race. Jesus, a frequent candidate and the Jesus Christ Partys' only member, has declared for the seat after being courted by many Pacificians.