The most covered election in Slokais, the New Liverpool Special Election will be held to replace Joseph Chavez’s seat that he gave up when he became President. Because of the large number of districts, seats in New Liverpool are split into district-wide and smaller districts. Chavez’s seat was the diverse Silverado and San Fernando district. Chavez himself has endorsed the National Alliance Candidate, but Socialist and Peoples Party, and Women’s Party Candidates all hope they can win a seat, The opposition nominated a Centrist, though is very unlikely he will win as Chavez won the seat with 84% in the second round, and 59% in the first round.
Rowan-Lewis Acuna from the National Alliance walks calmly down along the Riverside, the leaves blowing onto the water from the trees, his girlfriend walks along as the family dog runs behind them, he has asked that we meet him here. He called it his “community days” basically just walking around the precinct he hopes to win.
“I have met people from all walks of life with different concerns,” he says
Joseph Chavez is a local hero, he grew up in an apartment just a few blocks from where we are standing, he worked at the Sun Mart just down the road, where he supposedly gained an interest in politics. Cars were still covered in vintage Joseph Chavez bumper stickers with slogans like “Chavez for Legislature 2012”. Silverado and San Fernando is located at the meeting place of the Silverado and San Fernando Rivers, the two most important rivers. It’s an old working-class neighborhood with Apartments over 70-year-old restaurants. It is also a very diverse area within an already diverse country. Acuna has 38% of the vote
Running against Acuna is Price Zhao of the Centrist Party, an older man who Chavez had un-seated back in the 2000s. He and Chavez were friends when they were both in the big-tent Centrist Party, though as the party broke up they became rivals in a sense. “I knew Chavez back when he was a teenager” laughs Zhao
“This district and this country needs responsible leadership and expensive in this community,” he says
“I would not consider myself a Liberal or a Conservative, just someone who wants a better future for our country”. Zhao has 12% of the vote
United Retail Workers Hall #28 is a brick building at the corner of 27th St South and Market Blvd, its flag hangs from an upstairs window, we find a rally for Socialist Party candidate Julie Fox, there about 150 people seated around a central stage, union anthems play as background music.
“We have many working-class people in this district and they need someone who is part of the working class,” says a man in an orange Sun Mart jacket. Fox walks through the crowd shaking hands. The Socialist Party has been in Slokais for more than 100 years and has maintained a good relationship with organized Labor, Its supporters are mostly within New Liverpool and Victoria the two main industrial hubs of the country. Fox is polling at 25% and has been endorsed by Minmtao Johnson from the district just to the west in Southland.
Marcia Rollins is a member of the Women’s Party who has ties to the Gyrachist parties around the world, though in policy is less extreme than other parties around the world, though it still is a small party with 6 seats out of 643 all of them in province-wide districts.
