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 Except for the media swarm follwing the Dunkelzahn decision, the election of 2056 was a dull affair even to those who care about such things. The incumbents, President Thomas Steele and Vice President James Booth, won the election after a lackluster campaign season to which few voters actually paid attention.
Steele and Booth took the Technocratic Party into the White House through the back door, having vaulted into office in late 2052 without having won that year's election. Thomas Steele was Vice President to then-President Alan Adams, a Democrat elected to a second term in 2052. When President Adams died suddenly mere weeks after the 2052 election, Steele stepped into the presidential shoes and named Secretary of State James Booth as vice president. Their unexpected ascension gave the Technocrats control of the highest office of the UCAS, as well as pole position on the main road to the White House in 2056. Thomas Steele's famous "handshake" with Dunkelzahn launched the Technocrats to the top of the polls in mid-2056, a position they never left. The election seemed to be a foregone conclusion; indeed, most of the media-watchers declared the Steele/Booth team victorious just a few hours after the polls closed. The Technocrats seemed to be on a roll.
In early 2057, however, a scandal of unheard-of proportions rocked the UCAS. The "dullest election of the 21st century," as the media dubbed it, turned out to have been rigged...apparently with the approval of the highest office in the land. The "remote vote" system, put in place decades ago, fell victim to electronic tampering by "person or persons unknown," casting doubt on the ligitimacy of the Steele/Booth victory. In response, Congress launched an immediate investigation that resulted in the impeachment of the president and vice-president. When she was named interim president, Speaker of the House Betty Jo Pritchard (R-ONT) became, by default, the first female president of the UCAS. Acting President Pritchard would hold that position until new, untainted elections could be held. Now the voting public is in arms, and the politicos in DeeCee are throwing scapegoats to the hungry media wolves as quickly as they can find them.
The scandal and the prospect of a new election brings all the political factions in the UCAS (and elsewhere in North America) out of the woodwork. The short campaign time of just under eight months, approved by the UCAS House and Senate, allows fringe parties an unprecedented degree of influence because neither they nor their candidates will be subjected to the usual long, drawn-out public scrutiny. For the first time in almost a hundred years, money alone will not win the election. Dissatisfaction with the UCAS's traditional parties is at an all-time high; numerious splinter groups are breaking off and going at it on their own. Policlubs start gathering behind their favorite candidates, and politicians and agitators begin hauling out their favorite causes to champion in front of the ever-hungry media-machine.
Then the Dragon enters the race.
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