Difference between revisions of "Bluebird for Congress (Adventurers)"

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Despite making a serious bid to contend, though, Olivia hasn't lost sight of her reason for running: someone killed Representative Duran, and she intends to find out why.
 
Despite making a serious bid to contend, though, Olivia hasn't lost sight of her reason for running: someone killed Representative Duran, and she intends to find out why.
 +
 +
=Campaign Events=
 +
 +
==Primaries==
 +
 +
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 750px;"
 +
|+ Democratic Primaries
 +
| style="width: 1em;" | Week || Event || style="width: 3em;" | Olivia's Polling || style="width: 3em;" | Brownlee's Polling || style="width: 3em;" | Pittman's Polling || style="width: 3em;" | Strom's Polling || style="width: 3em;" | Undecided
 +
|-
 +
| 1
 +
| Olivia declares. She works on policy, establishes a campaign office at her family's hotel in MC, and hires a staff.
 +
| 5%
 +
| 15%
 +
| 19%
 +
| 13%
 +
| 48%
 +
|-
 +
| 2
 +
| Events of Adventurers #252 (Battle at the High School). Republican primary contender Carl Michaels uses the schoolground battle to stoke fear and hate toward meta-humans. Olivia goes public with her urban redevelopment plan.
 +
| 9%
 +
| 14%
 +
| 21%
 +
| 11%
 +
| 45%
 +
|-
 +
| 3
 +
| Olivia's office is taken over by an army of mind controlled people, predominantly homeless, held in sway by '''Pariah'''. Pariah doesn't like Olivia's plan to redevelop the remaining ruins of Old Detroit - it's where he and his thralls live, and he styles himself a king. [[The Adventurers]] help free Olivia before Pariah can mind control her, and she uses rhetorical persuasion to help break the spell over Pariah's thralls. Video of Olivia non-violently handling the mob gives her a huge surge in media attention and popularity, making her the presumed front-runner for her party overnight.
 +
| 39%
 +
| 16%
 +
| 17%
 +
| 11%
 +
| 17%
 +
|-
 +
| 4
 +
| A strangely quiet week for the campaign. Most candidates focused on their door-to-door work, and on fundraising.
 +
| 36%
 +
| 17%
 +
| 19%
 +
| 13%
 +
| 15%
 +
|-
 +
| 5
 +
| A break in at the local DNC offices by the costumed thief Ms. Direction is thwarted, and she fails to escape with the file cabinet she seemed to be after. But when a DNC audit of the records in the targeted cabinet reveals a previously unaccounted financial disclosure from Olivia Ellison suggesting she has taken funds from an ARGENT-linked think tank. Her critics are quick to paint Olivia as a hypocrite and a criminal for knowingly violating campaign finance law in accepting a corporate donation.
 +
| 28%
 +
| 19%
 +
| 21%
 +
| 14%
 +
| 18%
 +
|-
 +
| 6
 +
| Olivia continues to struggle in the polls as opposing newspapers pillory her as corrupt, even though no new evidence is brought to light. She meets secretly with Clayton Ewing, a Republican primary contender, who assesses Olivia's character, and then confides that he thinks Congressman Duran was murdered.
 +
 +
Olivia comes to her campaign office to find a live bluebird nailed to the door by its wing one day. Olivia directs her security staff not to talk about it and keep it out of the media.
 +
 +
Clayton Ewing survives an apparent assassination attempt, out-drawing a would-be gunman and putting him in hospital with a gunshot wound. The attacker dies in hospital overnight due to a medication conflict.
 +
| 23%
 +
| 25%
 +
| 19%
 +
| 16%
 +
| 17%
 +
|-
 +
| 7
 +
| The Adventurers discover a connection between Lester Brownlee and crime boss Cosmo Liddell - they're cousins. Liddell's freight company was at odds with the Strom/ARGENT one, so he wanted to get his cousin into Congress to tip the scales for him. Azure Hawk publicly embarrassed Brownlee with evidence. His campaign was DOA by the next morning. Olivia Ellison was exonerated.
 +
| 30%
 +
| 8%
 +
| 24%
 +
| 18%
 +
| 20%
 +
|}
 +
 +
Polling data is accurate to within ±5%, 19 times out of 20.
  
 
=Candidates=
 
=Candidates=
Line 25: Line 96:
 
==Agendas==
 
==Agendas==
  
−
Every candidate running has their focus. A campaign tends to benefit from having a strong, tightly-controlled message on a small number of policy areas.
+
Every candidate running has their focus. A campaign tends to benefit from having a strong, tightly-controlled message on a small number of policy areas. Conversely, voters may grow fatigued with a candidate who blusters on about esoteric policy areas.
  
−
* Economy - Industry, commerce, transportation, ports, power grid
+
==Motives==
−
* Environment - Conservation, protection, restoration
+
 
−
* Education - curriculum, priorities
+
Motives
 +
 
 +
* Ambition - Personal drive to 'climb the ladder'
 +
* Ideology - Wants to enact their vision of how society ''should'' be
 +
* Service - Wishes to serve others and/or the common good
 +
* Renown - Revels in being well-known and/or well-liked; wants to make history
 +
* Power - Hopes to enhance their wealth, influence, and/or privilege
 +
 
 +
==Policy Strengths==
 +
* Economy - Industry, commerce, employment, transportation, ports, power grid
 +
* Environment - Climate, conservation, protection, restoration
 +
* Government - taxation, governance, elections, immigration, civil service
 
* Justice - Law enforcement, prosecution, penalties, civil rights
 
* Justice - Law enforcement, prosecution, penalties, civil rights
−
* Reform - taxation, government, elections, immigration
 
 
* National Defense - procurement, recruitment, deployment, veterans affairs
 
* National Defense - procurement, recruitment, deployment, veterans affairs
−
* Health - Facilities, coverage, prevention
 
 
* Culture - Arts, heritage
 
* Culture - Arts, heritage
−
* Social - Nonprofit services, welfare, community & protective services
+
* Social - education, health, NGOs, welfare, community & protective services
−
* Religion - religious values, religious influence
+
 
* Foreign policy - relationships, intelligence, sanctions, trade
 
* Foreign policy - relationships, intelligence, sanctions, trade
  
−
==Democrats==
+
==Democratic==
  
−
===Olivia Ellison===
+
{{PoliticoCard
 +
| profileimage = BBfC_Lester_Thumb.png
 +
| character = Lester Brownlee
 +
| party = Democratic
 +
| 1stmotivation = Power
 +
| 2ndmotivation = Ambition
 +
| link =  
 +
| biography = Lester Brownlee, age 46, is the owner of a chain of auto wash and detailing stations throughout the metro Millenium City area. As a self-described "self-made" business owner, he promotes himself as the candidate of choice for voters wanting a middle-ground, political outsider, who knows what middle-class (and middle-class aspirant) citizens need to thrive. Though not having served in public office before (he had a failed bid to be on city council), he says his business experience has given him insight into the ways government helps and hurts commerce. Brownlee's website says he is driven to use the levers of power to make America prosperous for all, though he has offered few specifics. He has promised to hold back from weighing in on contentious social issues, preferring to handle them on a case-by-case basis, and do only what his constituents seem to want. He has also stated that he is against public funding for the arts and sports.
 +
<br>
 +
He was a notable critic of the late Congressman Durand for being too focused on thorny, "hippy-dippy" social issues, and was one of the first candidates to declare in the primary race after Durand's death. He has received a great deal of funding from lower and mid-tier company owners in Michigan. If he wins the Democratic nomination, it is thought that a number of pro-business PACs may be willing to fund Brownlee over a Republican.
 +
<br>
 +
Brownlee is strong on ECONOMY and GOVERNMENT. He is weak on CULTURE and SOCIAL ISSUES.
 +
| backcolor = blue
 +
| bordercolor = black
 +
| spacer = 1
 +
|}}
  
−
'''Stances:'''
+
{{PoliticoCard
 +
| profileimage = BBfC_Olivia_Thumb.png
 +
| character = Olivia Ellison
 +
| party = Democratic
 +
| 1stmotivation = Service
 +
| 2ndmotivation = Ambition
 +
| link =
 +
| biography = Olivia Ellison, age 25, is an executive for her family's international hotel chain. Moreover, she is a graduate of NYU with a business degree. Olivia's older sister, celebrity heiress Sarah Ellison, has tended to steal the spotlight for her party escapades, leaving the more bookish Olivia a virtual unknown up to now.
 +
<br>
 +
Olivia's platform revolves around proposals to secure federal funding to at last redevelop the remaining ruins of Old Detroit, which she maintains will create benefits to commerce, employment, public safety, and the environment. She has also linked her 'community action plan' of encouraging neighbourhood watches to her pro-superhero stance. Her policy strengths are JUSTICE, ECONOMY, and SOCIAL. She is weak on GOVERNMENT, having no prior experience working in any level of it.
 +
| backcolor = blue
 +
| bordercolor = black
 +
| spacer = 1
 +
|}}
  
−
* Wants to fund Millennium City to finally clean up the ruins of the old city, which will provide jobs and help reduce vagrancy
+
{{PoliticoCard
−
* Is pro-superhero
+
| profileimage = BBfC_Moses_Thumb.png
−
 
+
| character = Moses Pittman
−
'''Strong:'''
+
| party = Democratic
−
* Justice
+
| 1stmotivation = Service
−
* Economy
+
| 2ndmotivation = Ideology
−
* Social
+
| link =
−
 
+
| biography = Moses Pittman, age 41, is a lawyer specializing in environmental law. As a young adult, he aided various environmentalist protest groups, often in passive, non-violent ways, but occasionally he took part in disruptive activities such as blockades, public stunts, and riots at major political summits. Now an attorney, Moses wields the law against those who harm the natural world and jeopardize the environment. A father of three, Moses has repeatedly indicated that he wants his children to inherit a world better than the one he was born into.
−
'''Weak'''
+
<br>
−
* Religion
+
Moses is notable for his stance on extending personhood rights to animals, and strides taken to hold polluters to account. He has criticized his fellow Democrats who have taken money from large corporations, like Olivia Ellison who has taken donations from Eddison, her family's hotel chain, and DTO, or Savannah Strom who he sees as being bought and paid for by ARGENT. Pittman's campaign has been funded entirely by individual donations, and takes the fact that he is lagging behind in campaign contributions as a badge of honor.
−
* Reform
+
<br>
 +
Moses is strong on ENVIRONMENT, JUSTICE, and SOCIAL issues. He is weak on ECONOMY.
 +
| backcolor = blue
 +
| bordercolor = black
 +
| spacer = 1
 +
|}}
  
 +
{{PoliticoCard
 +
| profileimage = BBfC_Savannah_Thumb.png
 +
| character = Savannah Strom
 +
| party = Democratic
 +
| 1stmotivation = Power
 +
| 2ndmotivation = Service
 +
| link =
 +
| biography = Savannah Strom, age 49, is the wife of Bruce Strom, who co-owns Strom Logistics with her. Strom Logistics is a shipping company offering transportation solutions for ground and sea freight. Strom Logistics was acquired by ARGENT in 2014 and continues to operate as a subsidiary, given the company's concentration in the Great Lakes region. Apart from her work, Savannah is a patron of the arts and a regular donor to the Galleria in downtown Millennium City.
 +
<br>
 +
Savannah has strengths in CULTURE, ECONOMY and FOREIGN POLICY. She is weak on ENVIRONMENT.
 +
| backcolor = blue
 +
| bordercolor = black
 +
| spacer = 1
 +
|}}
  
 
==Republican==
 
==Republican==
  
−
===Carl Michaels===
+
{{PoliticoCard
−
 
+
| profileimage = BBfC_Carl_Thumb.png
−
'''Stances'''
+
| character = Carl Michaels
−
* Advocates for a crackdown on meta-humans
+
| party = Republican
−
 
+
| 1stmotivation = Ideology
−
'''Strong:'''
+
| 2ndmotivation = Ambition
−
* Justice
+
| link = Red_Spider
 +
| biography = Carl Michaels is a 35 year old lawyer and academic who has written several books, including the NY Times bestseller, ''Sunset of the Human Race: The Meta-human Apocalypse, and How to Prevent It''. He is most often dismissed as an alarmist with ties to the Institute for Human Advancement.
 +
<br>
 +
Playing to his JUSTICE agenda, he led a well-attended rally, supported by the I.H.A., in the aftermath of a superhero battle near a high school. Michaels suggesting meta-humans and costumed crime fighters are too dangerous, and that new laws are needed to limit the danger they present, and harsher punishments for meta-human offenders.
 +
| backcolor = red
 +
| bordercolor = black
 +
| spacer = 2
 +
|}}
  
−
'''Weak'''
+
{{PoliticoCard
−
<br>(Not known)
+
| profileimage = BBfC_Clayton_Thumb.png
 +
| character = Clayton Ewing
 +
| party = Republican
 +
| 1stmotivation = Power
 +
| 2ndmotivation = Renown
 +
| link =
 +
| biography =
 +
| backcolor = red
 +
| bordercolor = black
 +
| spacer = 2
 +
|}}

Latest revision as of 02:26, 1 August 2019

Bluebird for Congress is a storyline for the Adventurers supergroup, starting in May 2019 and intended to continue through September 2019.

Background

Who is Bluebird?

Bluebird is the nom de guerre of Olivia Ellison, a 25 year-old resident of Millennium City. Olivia works for her family's global hotel chain, Ellison Hotels; yet far from being a trust fund heiress, Olivia has completed a business degree and earned her seat at the executive table with her sound business acumen.

Secretly, Olivia takes to the streets as Bluebird, emulating her older half-sister, Sarah, the hero Night Star from New York City. Trained by Red Spider, Olivia has no powers, so relies on cunning and stealth more than her fists - though she is a capable fighter when need arises.

Why is Bluebird Running for Congress?

Recently, Millennium City's Congressman, Harland "Hal" Duran (D) passed away at the age of 66. His passing was deemed natural, and it began a process of a special election to replace him next fall. Everything seemed fine! ... and then, while surveilling mafia-connected gangsters on an unrelated matter, Bluebird overheard one boasting that he was part of a plot to poison Duran so that his vacant seat could be filled by someone hand-picked by the mob. Bluebird tracked this gangster down, captured him, and questioned him - but couldn't get him to break. She had to abandon him when his buddies arrived.

In the aftermath, that gangster seemed to disappear.

Bluebird started looking into likely gang-linked candidates, but could find few leads worth pursuing. She realized she needed to get into the system, not as an outsider, but someone working within it: as a candidate.

Upon sharing her plans with her sister and friends, Olivia became convinced that her candidacy was not crazy - she had the education, the experience, and the connections - and maybe, just maybe, she could stand of chance of winning. The better she did, the better her chances of getting close to other candidates, and be able to better understand the flow of money in campaigns.

Despite making a serious bid to contend, though, Olivia hasn't lost sight of her reason for running: someone killed Representative Duran, and she intends to find out why.

Campaign Events

Primaries

Democratic Primaries
Week Event Olivia's Polling Brownlee's Polling Pittman's Polling Strom's Polling Undecided
1 Olivia declares. She works on policy, establishes a campaign office at her family's hotel in MC, and hires a staff. 5% 15% 19% 13% 48%
2 Events of Adventurers #252 (Battle at the High School). Republican primary contender Carl Michaels uses the schoolground battle to stoke fear and hate toward meta-humans. Olivia goes public with her urban redevelopment plan. 9% 14% 21% 11% 45%
3 Olivia's office is taken over by an army of mind controlled people, predominantly homeless, held in sway by Pariah. Pariah doesn't like Olivia's plan to redevelop the remaining ruins of Old Detroit - it's where he and his thralls live, and he styles himself a king. The Adventurers help free Olivia before Pariah can mind control her, and she uses rhetorical persuasion to help break the spell over Pariah's thralls. Video of Olivia non-violently handling the mob gives her a huge surge in media attention and popularity, making her the presumed front-runner for her party overnight. 39% 16% 17% 11% 17%
4 A strangely quiet week for the campaign. Most candidates focused on their door-to-door work, and on fundraising. 36% 17% 19% 13% 15%
5 A break in at the local DNC offices by the costumed thief Ms. Direction is thwarted, and she fails to escape with the file cabinet she seemed to be after. But when a DNC audit of the records in the targeted cabinet reveals a previously unaccounted financial disclosure from Olivia Ellison suggesting she has taken funds from an ARGENT-linked think tank. Her critics are quick to paint Olivia as a hypocrite and a criminal for knowingly violating campaign finance law in accepting a corporate donation. 28% 19% 21% 14% 18%
6 Olivia continues to struggle in the polls as opposing newspapers pillory her as corrupt, even though no new evidence is brought to light. She meets secretly with Clayton Ewing, a Republican primary contender, who assesses Olivia's character, and then confides that he thinks Congressman Duran was murdered.

Olivia comes to her campaign office to find a live bluebird nailed to the door by its wing one day. Olivia directs her security staff not to talk about it and keep it out of the media.

Clayton Ewing survives an apparent assassination attempt, out-drawing a would-be gunman and putting him in hospital with a gunshot wound. The attacker dies in hospital overnight due to a medication conflict.

23% 25% 19% 16% 17%
7 The Adventurers discover a connection between Lester Brownlee and crime boss Cosmo Liddell - they're cousins. Liddell's freight company was at odds with the Strom/ARGENT one, so he wanted to get his cousin into Congress to tip the scales for him. Azure Hawk publicly embarrassed Brownlee with evidence. His campaign was DOA by the next morning. Olivia Ellison was exonerated. 30% 8% 24% 18% 20%

Polling data is accurate to within ±5%, 19 times out of 20.

Candidates

Agendas

Every candidate running has their focus. A campaign tends to benefit from having a strong, tightly-controlled message on a small number of policy areas. Conversely, voters may grow fatigued with a candidate who blusters on about esoteric policy areas.

Motives

Motives

  • Ambition - Personal drive to 'climb the ladder'
  • Ideology - Wants to enact their vision of how society should be
  • Service - Wishes to serve others and/or the common good
  • Renown - Revels in being well-known and/or well-liked; wants to make history
  • Power - Hopes to enhance their wealth, influence, and/or privilege

Policy Strengths

  • Economy - Industry, commerce, employment, transportation, ports, power grid
  • Environment - Climate, conservation, protection, restoration
  • Government - taxation, governance, elections, immigration, civil service
  • Justice - Law enforcement, prosecution, penalties, civil rights
  • National Defense - procurement, recruitment, deployment, veterans affairs
  • Culture - Arts, heritage
  • Social - education, health, NGOs, welfare, community & protective services
  • Foreign policy - relationships, intelligence, sanctions, trade

Democratic

Lester Brownlee
PARTY
Democratic
PRIMARY MOTIVATION
Power
SECONDARY MOTIVATION
Ambition
BBfC Lester Thumb.png
BIOGRAPHY
Lester Brownlee, age 46, is the owner of a chain of auto wash and detailing stations throughout the metro Millenium City area. As a self-described "self-made" business owner, he promotes himself as the candidate of choice for voters wanting a middle-ground, political outsider, who knows what middle-class (and middle-class aspirant) citizens need to thrive. Though not having served in public office before (he had a failed bid to be on city council), he says his business experience has given him insight into the ways government helps and hurts commerce. Brownlee's website says he is driven to use the levers of power to make America prosperous for all, though he has offered few specifics. He has promised to hold back from weighing in on contentious social issues, preferring to handle them on a case-by-case basis, and do only what his constituents seem to want. He has also stated that he is against public funding for the arts and sports.


He was a notable critic of the late Congressman Durand for being too focused on thorny, "hippy-dippy" social issues, and was one of the first candidates to declare in the primary race after Durand's death. He has received a great deal of funding from lower and mid-tier company owners in Michigan. If he wins the Democratic nomination, it is thought that a number of pro-business PACs may be willing to fund Brownlee over a Republican.

Brownlee is strong on ECONOMY and GOVERNMENT. He is weak on CULTURE and SOCIAL ISSUES.


Olivia Ellison
PARTY
Democratic
PRIMARY MOTIVATION
Service
SECONDARY MOTIVATION
Ambition
BBfC Olivia Thumb.png
BIOGRAPHY
Olivia Ellison, age 25, is an executive for her family's international hotel chain. Moreover, she is a graduate of NYU with a business degree. Olivia's older sister, celebrity heiress Sarah Ellison, has tended to steal the spotlight for her party escapades, leaving the more bookish Olivia a virtual unknown up to now.


Olivia's platform revolves around proposals to secure federal funding to at last redevelop the remaining ruins of Old Detroit, which she maintains will create benefits to commerce, employment, public safety, and the environment. She has also linked her 'community action plan' of encouraging neighbourhood watches to her pro-superhero stance. Her policy strengths are JUSTICE, ECONOMY, and SOCIAL. She is weak on GOVERNMENT, having no prior experience working in any level of it.


Moses Pittman
PARTY
Democratic
PRIMARY MOTIVATION
Service
SECONDARY MOTIVATION
Ideology
BBfC Moses Thumb.png
BIOGRAPHY
Moses Pittman, age 41, is a lawyer specializing in environmental law. As a young adult, he aided various environmentalist protest groups, often in passive, non-violent ways, but occasionally he took part in disruptive activities such as blockades, public stunts, and riots at major political summits. Now an attorney, Moses wields the law against those who harm the natural world and jeopardize the environment. A father of three, Moses has repeatedly indicated that he wants his children to inherit a world better than the one he was born into.


Moses is notable for his stance on extending personhood rights to animals, and strides taken to hold polluters to account. He has criticized his fellow Democrats who have taken money from large corporations, like Olivia Ellison who has taken donations from Eddison, her family's hotel chain, and DTO, or Savannah Strom who he sees as being bought and paid for by ARGENT. Pittman's campaign has been funded entirely by individual donations, and takes the fact that he is lagging behind in campaign contributions as a badge of honor.

Moses is strong on ENVIRONMENT, JUSTICE, and SOCIAL issues. He is weak on ECONOMY.


Savannah Strom
PARTY
Democratic
PRIMARY MOTIVATION
Power
SECONDARY MOTIVATION
Service
BBfC Savannah Thumb.png
BIOGRAPHY
Savannah Strom, age 49, is the wife of Bruce Strom, who co-owns Strom Logistics with her. Strom Logistics is a shipping company offering transportation solutions for ground and sea freight. Strom Logistics was acquired by ARGENT in 2014 and continues to operate as a subsidiary, given the company's concentration in the Great Lakes region. Apart from her work, Savannah is a patron of the arts and a regular donor to the Galleria in downtown Millennium City.


Savannah has strengths in CULTURE, ECONOMY and FOREIGN POLICY. She is weak on ENVIRONMENT.


Republican

Carl Michaels
PARTY
Republican
PRIMARY MOTIVATION
Ideology
SECONDARY MOTIVATION
Ambition
BBfC Carl Thumb.png
BIOGRAPHY
Carl Michaels is a 35 year old lawyer and academic who has written several books, including the NY Times bestseller, Sunset of the Human Race: The Meta-human Apocalypse, and How to Prevent It. He is most often dismissed as an alarmist with ties to the Institute for Human Advancement.


Playing to his JUSTICE agenda, he led a well-attended rally, supported by the I.H.A., in the aftermath of a superhero battle near a high school. Michaels suggesting meta-humans and costumed crime fighters are too dangerous, and that new laws are needed to limit the danger they present, and harsher punishments for meta-human offenders.


Clayton Ewing
PARTY
Republican
PRIMARY MOTIVATION
Power
SECONDARY MOTIVATION
Renown
BBfC Clayton Thumb.png
BIOGRAPHY
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