After considering many options, we are now prepared to release the map we will use for the upcoming mini-reset. This map is final, so don't bother with suggestions about the configuration.

However, the region and superregion names listed here are only tentative. We would like your input if you have other suggestions as to what to call them. You can post any ideas in this thread.



Solid: > +5%
Lean: < +5%

Northeast (red): Solid Dem
--Atlantic Seaboard (dark red): PA, NJ, DE (Lean Dem)
--New England (light red): NY, MA, CT, RI, ME, NH, VT (Solid Dem)

Dixie (blue): Lean GOP
--Shenandoah Valley (light blue): NC, VA, TN, MD, WV (Lean Dem)
--Gulf Coast (dark blue): FL, GA, SC, AL (Solid GOP)

Heartland (green): Solid GOP
--Great Plains (light green): MO, MN, IA, KS, NE, ND, SD (Lean GOP)
--Sun Belt (dark green): TX, OK, LA, MS, AR (Solid GOP)

Midwest (orange): Even
--Great Lakes (dark orange): IL, MI, WI (Lean Dem)
--Ohio Valley (light orange): OH, IN, KY (Lean GOP)

West (purple): Lean Dem
--Rocky Mountains (light purple): WA, OR, AK, HI, MT, ID, NV, UT, CO, NM, AZ, WY (Lean GOP)
--California (dark purple): CA (Solid Dem)

Superregions, from most Dem to most GOP:
Northeast: Solid Dem
West: Lean Dem
---
Midwest: Even
---
Dixie: Lean GOP
Heartland: Solid GOP

Regions, from most Dem to most GOP:
New England: Solid Dem
California: Solid Dem
Great Lakes: Lean Dem
Atlantic Seaboard: Lean Dem
Shenandoah Valley: Lean Dem
---
Rocky Mountains: Lean GOP
Ohio Valley: Lean GOP
Great Plains: Lean GOP
Gulf Coast: Solid GOP
Sun Belt: Solid GOP

Please note the addition of Fundraising and PACs for House Elections and the new precedent regarding replacing Committee members.

You may direct any questions or feedback to this thread.

And in case you're wondering, no, there are not currently any plans to bring back PACs for any non-House elections.

Subject to change:

The initial slider settings and technology levels are posted here: http://www.usgovsim.net/USG/index.php?showtopic=35178

The comment/notification thread is here: http://www.usgovsim.net/USG/index.php?showtopic=35179

The initial attitude numbers are based on 1992 polling where possible, educated guesses if necessary, and WAGs when required.

First, See Hayden's much more awesome announcement above, regarding the revamped attitude and technology sliders.

Second, due to a paucity of players who are not running for higher office, the House elections will be delayed to allow more people to participate. The House elections will run according to the following tentative schedule:



All other elections will run according to the schedule listed in the first post of this thread, unless otherwise noted.

Lieutenant Governor Candidates do SIX (6) total events (3 on Day 1, 3 on Day 2), unless your grader instructs otherwise in your race's campaign thread. Just to clarify a question that was asked in the Help Desk.

Snap election funding will be as follows: Senate candidates receive $5M each. Governor candidates receive $9M each. There are no party funds or transfers of any kind. Money not spent during the election cannot be carried over into warchests.

Primary candidates will receive an additional $3M for use in the primary only. Any primary funds left over will also disappear -- they cannot be used in the general election or saved into warchests. General election funds can, however, be used during the primary.

Mini-reset org costs are posted here.

Also, the platform/budget deadline for the Dixie Governor race has been pushed back to August 1 at 23:59 (or whenever both candidates finish their budgets and platforms) by agreement between the candidates. The rest of the race will continue as scheduled.

Below is a state-by-state breakdown of the demographics for the mini-reset. Please note a few things:

• These are not the exact numbers -- they include a 2% margin of randomized error and rounding error, so all numbers could be either higher or lower than listed, by up to 2%
• The demos were calculated using 1990 census data as well as political factors from 1992 and 1988, then manually adjusted for balance, competitiveness, and playability. They aren't going to be perfect.
• The demos are final and will not be changed based on any complaints.

First, do not miss Red's spectacular, demographic-filled announcement above. Seriously.

Second, for Midwest races (MWS Governor/Lt. Governor, GL Senate, and OV Senate), as there are no primaries in the region, if both candidates in a race have their platforms AND budget submitted early, I will aim to have prepolls early as well. This is not to push anyone to post before they are ready, but as a friendly heads-up that I'll get some turnaround on those.

Third, and more broadly: The White House and the Cabinet. Courtesy of Summy:

The new Senate rules are posted! There are significant changes from before. I think I've enumerated them all here, but everyone who is going into the Senate should read that post from top to bottom so they understand Senate procedure and don't accidentally infer things from the past reset.

Changes:
-Majority Party can be held responsible for dead-beat PPT, SML, Committee Chairs and others. It is their job to keep the Senate running, so the Majority should pick Senators capable of this. So if the Majority is doing a lackluster performance, I expect to see PRs about the poor performance on the Majority in running the Senate. This probably wasn't necessary to codify, but I had significant questions about it last reset, so now ts official. Be a good majority, or else!
-Posts after a 14 days stretch of inactivity are no longer valid. I did this for conveniance this reset, as a Senator went inactive, came back and voted on a whole myraid of things before I removed him. Instead of causing a bunch of retroactive problems with votes, I let them count. This is no longer the case. If you go 14 days inactive, that's it. Regardless of when I remove you, your posts in the Senate no longer count for anything. I trust the parties to alert me quickly on inactives so we don't run into any problem on this.
-Objections to unanimous consent can be made at any time after the motion has been made, not simply after the presiding officer has recognized the motion for its 24 hour consideration. This was already standard practice, but since I saw a couple IC scuffles about it, I made it official.
-Certain motions to amend that reverse a previous amendment might be motions to reconsider in disguise. The Senate Parliamentarian (me) should be consulted in all instances when such a motion comes up, and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis as to whether it should be handled as a motion to reconsider or a motion to amend.
-Committees are back! Sort of. I'm going to try a hybrid system. The Senate Majority Leader can still set the docket with bills from the hopper (bills submit by Senators without going through the Committee process), or the SML Office (bills passed by the House). However, Senators can now choose to submit their legislation to individual Committees's legislation folder. Why is this a good idea? If the Committee adopts your bill, it, like workshop bills, must be placed on the Senate docket. I feel the workshop idea didn't quite take off because there wasn't enough direction. With the inclusion of individual bills into the process, I think this will make Committees far more interesting as they can now force the hand of the SML. Warning to thick-headed Committee Chairs, though, the SML is your boss and he can fire you at any time. So what's the catch? Well, workship bills and individual bills submit to Committee need to pass by a majority vote of the Committee as a whole. So its a small hurdle to jump through, but it has a nice reward, as...
-There is no longer the Motion to Suspend. The only way to get a bill on the docket is through the SML or through the above Committee process. To organize all this, I am creating an extra forum called the Docket, where workshop bills or Committee-submited bills passed under this status will be placed while the SML makes room for them on the floor. The SML can also utilize this by moving the bills he's selected for the docket to this forum as well.
-Motion for UC has new powers. In order to expedite the uncontroversial things (IE: Resolutions about terrorism, or some such), Senators can move to adopt a bill sitting in the Hopper or SML Office by UC. This motion can only be made once on those bills so long as they are in the Hopper/SML Office. I'm actually pretty certain this was valid last reset, and potentially always, but with the preference to move to suspend, we forgot about it I think. This way, with the elimination of the motion to suspend, we can still (hopefully) get things fast that are fluff/uncontroversial.

Just to clarify my plans for the House elections ... this cycle only, players who ran for higher office and lost will be allowed to participate in House elections, and may (but don't have to) use the same character to do so. If you ran for higher office and the results of your race have not been posted by 17:00 ET on either House election day, you may participate in House elections on that day.

For all future cycles, we will go by the standard eligibility rules: those who file to run for higher office may not participate (except for Lt Gov candidates, who may use a House multi and participate as long as the player is not also running for something else).

Also, House fundraising and PACs will not be available until the 1994 election cycle. For this cycle, the parties will be given equal warchests, and what you get is what you get.

Any questions can be asked here.

Okay, my apologies, for being an overworked idiot. So, NOR elections in which there was a primary (both NE Senate seats) will be pushed back one day. The new schedule is below:



NOR elections where their was no primary will have their pre-polls up within the next hour or two and should go ahead as previously scheduled (that means your Day 1 is due by 11:59PM August 2nd).

RM races (just RM, not CA or West Gov or LtG) pushed back a day due to my inability to get 5 prepolls done tonight. I tried, but I couldn't. The Hayes who works full time IRL is not as fun as the Hayes who doesn't when it comes to election times. Sorries.

Note for my races: If Day One materials are posted early, I will (as has been my goal) get you halfpolls prior to or on the early hours of Day Two. If you post in the usual time frame, there will be (obviously) no penalties and I still do my best to get you a half poll. But the more time I have available, the more likely you are to get one.

Due to an oversight on my part, the Dixie Lieutenant Governor's race will be pushed back 24 hours. I'll get prepolls out for it as soon as I can.

Just to clarify, half-polls during snap elections are a bonus at your admin's discretion. Please, do not wait around and fail to do your events because you didn't get half-polls. They weren't on the schedule for these elections, so the lack of them will not be an acceptable excuse for lateness.

For anyone interested, myself and at least one other admin will be announcing election results in the IRC chat (link found on the forums) after the Day Two deadline for races on the standard schedule.

As has been going around, the Cabinet for the Clinton Administration will be filled with players - much like previous, applications will be taken for those positions. A few things of note:
1) The Cabinet will be, where possible, made largely to shape of the Clinton Cabinet from an ideological perspective. Keep this in mind when applying.
2) You are welcome, if not encouraged, to apply for more than one position. However, to avoid large amounts of clutter in my inbox, please send one application and explain why you would be interested in such position. Please refer to this regarding the Cabinet positions while keeping in mind the past consolidated form (State, Defense, Treasury, and Interior with DCI instead of Homeland Security).
3) At least one member of the Cabinet will be a Republican, perhaps two depending on how the applications pan out. This leads directly into the next point...
4) Prior to being picked, there will be some basic ground rules established. No, your soul is not required for the job, but a basic understanding of the responsibility given is a must. As per RL, I do have the authority to fire someone if I don't believe they are holding up to that responsibility and I will use it as necessary. The gist is "don't do stupid things and you should be fine" but for anyone who gets to that stage, we'll go into more detail.
5) That all in mind, remember: this is still a game and this mini-reset in particular is something a bit different than the norm. If you have ideas and creative initiatives, give me an idea in your application. Just because we're doing a bit of history doesn't mean we can't have fun with it.

For applications, please send your character name, any particular aliases you go by or notable former characters, past experience IG - elected positions, Cabinet, etc., which position(s) you are interested in and the general outlook of how you'd play that position.

For example --

Current Character: Lincoln Winters
Notable characters/alias: Clay, Samuel Clay, Robert Adams, Anthony Sherman
Past experience: Senator on several occasions from different states and parties, Secretary of State in two administrations (Mason and Cullen), Senate Democratic Leader for a period of six months, President Pro Tempore for three months.
Interested positions: 1) Secretary of State, 2) Director of Central Intelligence, 3) Secretary of Defense
SecState-- Largely a liberal internationalist (democratic peace theory, free trade, emphasis on the UN, etc.) with some slight hawkish tendencies where necessary. Very interested in China/Taiwan layout, as well as post-Cold War Europe.
DCI-- Modernization and bringing operations division up to speed after 1970s reorganization of the intelligence community. Better communication between domestic and international intelligence is a must, looking towards transitioning system from a Soviet/Eastern Europe-based focused to a more diverse one. Interested highly in means to address non-state actors (terrorists).
SecDef-- Transitioning of military to more mobile force while focusing on a possible peace dividend. Predominantly looking to keep strong military ties and cooperation with traditional allies (UK, ANZUS, NATO, etc.) while branching out to other areas (India, South America, Eastern Europe) for cooperation. Mostly reactive when not in reorganization focus.

Please PM your applications to me for consideration. Likely to have nominees for each position picked in 48 hours and made public shortly thereafter.

As you may have noticed, we are going back to 5 standing committees in the House (in addition to the Rules Committee). The decision was based on the number of active Housies we had last reset, the number of players who had to pull double and triple duty on committees, and the expansion of the Senate.

The new House standing committees are:

Foreign Relations and Armed Services (FRAS)
Judiciary and Oversight (JUD)
Budget, Infrastructure, and Commerce (BIC)
Welfare, Education, and Labor (WEL)
Science, Health, Energy, and Environment (SHEE)

Thank you all to those who applied and showed interest in being part of the Executive Branch for the Clinton Administration - with well over fifteen applications, the hardest part was without a doubt narrowing it down to half a dozen selections. Keep in mind, these players are not to be playing their RL counterparts unless specifically stated. Without further ado:

Secretary of State (Harold White) will be Teach

Secretary of Defense (James Irving Mattis) will be Daniels

Secretary of the Treasury (Simon Tam) will be Maxi

Secretary of the Interior (Daniel Mallory) will be Mallory

Director of Central Intelligence (Alan Eckstein) will be Sykes

And Vice President Al Gore will be played by resident Gore aficionado Raddi

Official nominations will be submitted shortly to the Senate for confirmation.