Representative Democracy has given rise to hundreds of variations, each attempting to address an illogical or unintended quirk of the other systems. L.A. Mayoral elections make use of a two round system. If the front-runner in the Primary claims 51% they automatically win. Otherwise the top two candidates from the Primary compete in the General Election.

Write ins are permitted in the Primary, which leads Californians to bouts of impish voting at times.

Bodie has done well, she's clearly a lock for the General Election but with two weeks to go seems unlikely to clinch a Primary majority. The latest polls have six candidates worth mentioning. Margin of error is 3% so short of a huge upset her worst outcome is a tie. Talking heads say the following.

1) Bodie Queen, 28%, independent who has brought an ad hoc collation together. There is no deep institutional support.

2) Jack Lawson, 22%, moderate Republican with a minor celebrity wife, self-made millionaire with strong union and blue collar support. His biggest Achilles' Heel (besides his party affiliation) is that his son was found guilty of vehicular manslaughter two year ago, no proof Jack had anything to do with it but the gossip was vicious.

3) Miranda Vine, 20%, socialist leaning Democrat, well educated and popular on policy but possess a bad habit of putting her foot in her mouth

4) Alexander Graff, 10%, the blandest Democrat imaginable. Generally handsome, went to the right school, bi-racial (Pakistani father, Hispanic mother), grandson of a senator, and a long time public defender. No real strengths or weaknesses, the embodiment of a compromise candidate for national Democrats.

5) Jacob Ayres, 10%, Democrat. Eloquent and witty, a long time high school teacher whose issues are all education; from funding to improvements to accessibility and curriculum overhaul.

6) Josephine Keller, 10%, says Republican but the State's Republican Committee has disavowed her hard. She's gorgeous, visibly pious, young, and infinitely self-assured. Her father was a televangelist and she's inherited his very socially conservative congregation.

Bodie has two weeks, several dozen full-time staffers, and a reasonably full war chest to draw on.

With two weeks to go, Bodie had her staff arranging as many publicity events as possible.
These might be public appearances,  formal debates with other candidates,  or  TV presences.
She also wanted to arrange formal meeting between herself and as many of the candidates as possible:  especially the three Democrats:  Miranda Vine, Jacob Ayres and Alexander Graff (individually, or jointly, as can be arranged).

Lucinda Fare has over the course of the campaign proven herself often enough to be considered Bodie's right hand. Existing as some Californian hybrid of surfer and goth on her off hours she's the charm equivalent of a Claymore Mine. In theory she's a classically trained guitarist but studio musician gigs for all genres to pay the bills.

"I can get Vine and Graff for lunch tomorrow," she tells her boss before lunch, "But it's like the cabbage, goat, and wolf puzzle. Ayres and Vine have gone past ignoring each other, there's some straight up personal hostility there I can't get a handle on. If one of them does support you the other looks likely to go the other way."

She surrenders two manila folders to Bodie.

"Pick your poison, there's an invitation to the local CNN affiliate but," Lucinda winces in sympathy, "It'd be you with Lawson and Keller. I think the station is wanting to make her look crazier and figures you're a good spark to set her off. Alternately there's a charity concert taking up the same time spot. Better music if Jazz is your thing, and the redoubtable Missus Lawson will be in attendance. She's stayed out of things so far, might be a chance to pick up points for civility."

Bodie sat at her desk, feet up on it, holding the cup of coffee she'd made ... she'd made Lucinda one too, and the two were 'sorting out the day'.

Regarding a lunch tomorrow with Vine and Graff:  "Do it.
But see if you can arrange for me to 'meet and greet' them individually first.   See if I can get them 'playing nicely' with me before we all sit down together".

Regarding the charity concert:  "Get me into the concert;  we'll see what Madame Shark is up to".

"Thank you, Lucinda".
               Is Lucinda considered Bodie's 'running partner', or just chief of staff, please?

Lucinda is not on the ticket, Bodie may or may not have given her an official title but functionally she volunteered at the start of the campaign and became a political factotum through repeated displays of competence. Some of the other staffers have nicknamed her 'Jeeves'. She seems entirely without any ambition of her own to hold office. How she can afford to put in the sheer amount of time as a volunteer is unclear, but other than a few music gigs she's seemingly never off the clock.

"Will do on the lunch, it'll be Vine first I think. Not sure I can pull her away long enough for you to have a one on one with Graff," her aide answers with a nod before sipping the coffee, "You planning to hit the concert solo? Two tickets are easy to grab as one."

Lucinda was Bodie's fully employed personal assistant.

"Thank you, Lucinda," Bodie said, sipping her coffee, "I'll talk to Vine, and then we'll have Graff join us when he turns up.  I'll work with that", she said, with a nod as she considered all things.


"And I'll only need one ticket to the concert, please ... but I'd be happy for you to be there also, if you wanted to join me.

What can we find out about Madame Shark?  and her relationship with Mr Shark?" she asked.



Either way, the next day, Bodie sat ready, at her favourite cafe, to meet with Miranda Vine.

"Twenty-seven years in, no real scandal between them, she's got more money but neither of them splash around much obvious cash. The usual charities, a bit of activism, yearly wardrobe updates," Lucinda recited with a shrug, "She was pretty apolitical before they married and aside from outings with him that hasn't changed much. Nobody has been able to pin her down for an interview. A few of the lower rung new media types tried confronting her in public a week ago, they kept at it for half an hour and didn't get so much as a soundbite."

She flailed her free hand in the air for a moment.

"No way. I don't do fancy dress and I definitely don't do drinks when cameras are around."

_________________________________________________________________

Her favorite cafe roped off a few tables so that she could actually have a chance to hold conversations without gawkers and interruptions from both well wishers and haters. Granted, things had been oddly civil so far but one idiot could spoil that for everyone.

Miranda Vine is sixty, an academic, and looks like a kindly grandmother from Disney central casting. Bodie saw the competitor enter as the server took her order. Vine spent twenty seconds all but shooing a forty-ish looking man away. Doubtless one of her staff had been sent along.

"You know I am not going to drop out," she told Bodie bluntly as she took a seat opposite the younger woman.

Bodie smiled at that.   "You have wisdom beyond your years, my friend", raising her coffee mug in salute.

But her mind was still largely on the matter of Madame Shark ... who, if Bodie's guess was correct, would attempt to avoid Bodie for the entire evening.

Bodie smirked at the comment.   Was that the clearest form of projection she'd ever witnessed?
"Did you come here to ask me to do that?" she asked Vine, as the lady sat, "Why would you think that I would do that?

You are a tough woman, with an solid agenda, and the force of personality and devotion to your cause to be a worthy Mayor.
Do you really think I'd waste my time attempting to dissuade you from your path?"

She took a sip of her drink, then, to allow the woman to ruminate upon that:  and reply, if she felt the need.

"We need to ensure that it's either you or I.   And at the moment, Lawson is sitting between us in the polls.
So the question I AM here to ask is:   What can we do about that?"

"You have three options from where my campaign manager sits. First, proceed as you have so far. Unless you murder a baby in broad daylight you'll be one of the two who move on. The risk being that Republicans will vote for Lawson as a block in a way that a third party can't match," Vine worked as a lecturer and it showed in her hand gestures. She counted the options off with her fingers. "Second, you can go after Lawson. This is a high risk, high reward approach because he actually seems to be squeaky clean. You might lose a few points going mean and his Party will rally."

Vine ordered Earl Grey with a few drops of milk.

"Behind door number three we have co-opting those closer to you on the spectrum. Endorsements, plum positions, glad handing all round so that you're a de facto Democrat to offset the only real weakness your campaign has. I won't do that because it takes away my leverage to make the issues ones that matter to me."

She leaned back in her chair.

"But my campaign manager doesn't remember the Cold War, the triangulations of shoring up a competitor long enough to outnumber the one you're worried about."

As an Australia, I know our political processes are different from the American ones.
Please, I assume that the race for Mayor is an all or nothing deal.   You either win, and have the power; or you loose, and have no more 'leverage' to make the issues ones that matter to oneself.

Can you please explain, briefly, what she means by keeping her leverage.

Putting this here from the OOC just for reference

"For sure", Bodie said, raising her glass to the lady.
"Your 'leverage' only lasts for the next two weeks, however, unless you manage to be part of the ongoing race".

Even if Lawson progressed to the General Elections, and it seemed he would, it would be in opposition to either herself or Miranda Vine.
And if Vine wanted her her issues to remain leveraged, she'd need to throw her support behind either of the two forerunners in just over two weeks.   If she didn't earn that position in the General Election, it was unlikely that she'd support Lawson (nor that he'd want her support anyway; at least, not without denying her a lot of that leverage she sought).

But Bodie wanted to engender and feed that possible support now.
"So tell me," she asked Vine, leaning forward in interest, "so that we are clear, what issues are the most important to you?"    What was she most focused on keeping that leverage on?


As Bodie attempted to connect with the woman, and engender some respect from, she willed Vine towards an attitude of 'great respect' for Bodie using Infectious Passion (Passion, Greater, Action)

Commit Effort for the scene to plant a seed of a particular emotional attitude toward a chosen person
or topic in a visible target. If that target is affected, they become infectious, spreading that same attitude
toward their friends and associates over the course of a single contact.
The infection can spread five or six degrees before it loses its magical potency, usually enough to
completely overwhelm a village, court, or neighborhood. Lesser foes get no saving throw, but worthy
enemies can save versus Spirit to resist. It lasts until the Godbound releases the victims or the emotion
becomes blatantly inappropriate.

"Only one needs leverage until whatever they're moving has been put into place. Once a task is done generally one stops performing it," Vine replied, her undiplomatic side coming out, "We both know the usual will be in play. Big ticket? I want parity between the Public Defenders and Prosecutors in funding and case load. It won't fix the justice system but it'll at least give a fighting chance."

Just for clarity define what behaviors would constitute respect in this use. It works, she does not get a save, but respectful competitor, respectful subordinate, et al have different actions associated with them.