Shadow Empire

Chapter 425 Councillor William
"I heard you had some problems."

William stood facing the floor-length mirror, and Emily was beside him, helping him adjust his clothes.

These are clothes made by the old tailor himself. They fit the body very well, although the old tailor is not well-known in the Federation.

But he was indeed capable, otherwise the nobles would not have worn the clothes he made.

William in the mirror looked a few years younger after careful dressing up. He looked at Lance through the mirror.

Lance was also dressed very appropriately today. Today was the day for voting in the municipal council election, and William needed to appear on site to canvass for votes.

In fact, sometimes the election and environment of federal politicians are really sloppy. Direct elections such as municipal councillors are often elected through voting by citizens in the constituency.

Many people are actually not very keen on voting, especially immigrant groups, who always feel that federal politics has nothing to do with them.

But some people care more about this.

When some people who don't care but have to vote stand in front of many ballot boxes with their ballots and have to choose a ballot box they don't understand.

They often feel at a loss as they have heard of these people's names but don't know who they are.

If at this time, the candidates actively canvass for votes, or even shake their buttocks on the spot, it is very likely that voters who originally did not intend to vote will have the idea and impulse to vote.

Lance looked at William in the mirror and nodded, "Small problem, solved."

William didn't say anything because he heard that this little problem caused the deaths of two people.

He didn't know if there was anything else behind this incident, he just knew that two people died.

This may be a necessary step towards the upper class society——

You are no longer so in awe of life!

Yes, it will not be like in the past, when people might not respect life because they would curse at others and curse very harshly, and might even humiliate others’ personalities.

But you will respect life, and you will not actively want to deprive others of their right to live.

But when you embark on this path and start to become different, you will realize that some things are not the same as before.

Lance didn't say much, and William naturally wouldn't go into details. This was Lance's own business.

After Emily helped William fix the folds of his tie, the two of them walked towards the stage together.

It is called an election platform, but in fact it is just a simply built platform, about one meter above the ground, with a long table in front of it and a large ballot box on the table.

The ballot box not only has William's name on it, but also his bust, and the words "Please vote for Mr. William" are printed around it.

The election of municipal councillors in Jingang City is arranged in various constituencies.

The location is decided by the city hall, they will set up the environment and arrange a ballot box.

People can get a ballot with their valid ID, fill in the name of the candidate and put it in the ballot box.

The entire process is monitored by dedicated personnel to ensure that ticket theft does not occur.

While each region says they ensure flawless elections, federal elections have always been a farce.

Whether it is the election of municipal councillors or the president.

But today's election will not be so "funny" because William has no competitors.

His only competitor, Mr. Jobaf, was lying peacefully in his coffin, slowly rotting and deteriorating.

So he has no other competitors, and even if someone wants to do something, for example, the Socialist Party wants to urgently reserve a candidate, it is actually too late.

The only opponent he has to compete with now is the previous city councillor, Mr. Ruth, a Liberal Party member.

Mr. Ruth was a short man with gray hair. He could hardly force a smile when he looked at William.

The Liberal Party did not give him any political resources this year, so his campaign efforts in the election were much smaller than William's.

The Imperial District is not an area of ​​high-quality political resources. A large group of impoverished Imperial immigrants cannot add any political influence to the Liberal Party.

Secondly, political resources have a price. These things are not priceless. You can give as much as you want.

If you find someone to stand up for you, you owe that person a favor. There are some favors that Ruth cannot afford to repay herself, so she can only repay them through the Liberal Party.

So before paying him resources, the Liberal Party thought carefully and decided that the deal was not worth it.

Moreover, Jingang City and Likalai State are very typical socialist camps, so they did not continue to allocate resources.

It's not that Congressman Ruth didn't try, he did try, but his efforts were almost invisible under the influence of William and Mr. Jobbaugh.

It is impossible for him to actually spend his own money on the election. If someone is really stupid enough to spend his own money on the election, he must be doing it to become president, not to become a city councilor!

So at this time, Congressman Russ knew that he was doomed to lose, but it was still difficult for him to smile at William. He just walked over with pursed lips, shook hands with William, and then stood back behind his box.

When the official voting began, staff from the State Election Commission watched as a large number of citizens lined up to vote for William, while there were only a few dozen people lining up for Congressman Ruth.

They actually knew what the result of this vote would be.

Congressman Ruth could no longer bear it after seeing this scene. He turned around and left with a grim look on his face. His wife could only helplessly apologize to those voters and then chase after him.

The boos from the crowd almost made Congressman Ruth fall, and the subsequent laughter made his face hot. He couldn't stand this place anymore and just wanted to leave!

William kept his composure as he thanked people for voting for him, and Emily's hand was shaking as she held his arm!

Hell, she was going to be a "Congressman's wife"!

She got a little excited at the thought of this!
In social interactions in the community, the focus of discussion among women is always the men in their families.

Almost all of these women have no jobs and are full-time housewives. The only things they can show off are their husbands and children.

William was more or less a civil servant before, not too bad, but not too good either.

Although Emily has tried her best to maintain her position in this social circle, it is actually an awkward position.

But now, her identity will be completely different from those women, and she can also attend parties hosted by Congressman Williams' wife and socialize.

Regardless of whether you are a man or a woman, power is always the most powerful aphrodisiac!
In this era, only a small number of people have the right to vote - just having a job and owning a house has already screened out many people.

According to statistics from some organizations, as of 1023, only a dozen percent of the federal population has the right to vote.

Some say it is 11%, while some organizations say it is over 17%, but the exact number is not easy to calculate.

Even if we find a compromise, 14 percent, this number is actually only slightly more than the number of middle class people.

Although the population of the Empire District is large, there are not many voters who were born in the Federation, have legal federal status, have a stable job and a house of their own, and even fewer are willing to participate in the election.

The election will almost be over today!

There were also some "election support" activities on site, for example, voters who participated in the voting would randomly receive a fried chicken coupon.

They could go to a designated deli and use the food stamp to get a fried chicken, but everyone could see that they only gave the stamps to people who voted for William.

Those who voted for Ruth?

Sorry, they were unlucky and were not selected randomly!
This kind of obvious but legal canvassing is allowed, which also caused some people who planned to vote for Ruth to change teams.

The queues continued until almost noon, when the number of people coming to vote gradually decreased and there were no more queues.

“It seems that everyone who should vote has already voted.”

William was suppressing his surprise, not wanting to lose his composure because of being too happy.

The couple was holding back. Lance nodded, "Yes, there are still a few votes that will hardly change the situation. Congratulations, William."

William and Lance hugged each other. "I have to thank you for your dedication, Lance. If it weren't for you, I would still be a civil servant in the office!" "This moment and this life have nothing to do with me!"

The election committee staff nearby did not stop them from celebrating in advance, because they could see that this Mr. William Lawrence had already been confirmed as the city councilor of the Empire District.

The entire election will last for three days to allow some people who are out of town time to rush back and vote.

In fact, there are just as many federal residents who are unwilling to vote as those who are actively voting, and the federal government has been encouraging people to participate more in political activities.

But the effect is not very good, some people just don't want to vote.

The reason why the government encourages more people to vote is also because of human diversity. If a Socialist Party supporter votes, there will always be only one Socialist Party ticket.

But if ten people come to vote, there might be two or three votes for the Liberals, one or two votes for the Federalists, and then five or six votes for the Socialists.

Perhaps due to the development of the party, some supporters of the Socialist Party will become supporters of the Liberal Party or the Federal Party.

In the afternoon, basically no one came to vote. At 3:30, the staff of the Election Committee proposed to close the ballot box, and today's voting was over.

A little after three o'clock, James called and said he wanted to invite Lance and William to a small party, and they did not refuse.

The three of them went to find Patricia together. Patricia asked for leave, went back to change clothes, and then attended the party hosted by James together.

They didn’t say what the party was called, but everyone attending knew it was a victory party—not to celebrate William’s victory, but to celebrate James’ victory.

Of course, it can also be said that it celebrated the victory of the entire faction!
The reason why it is not called a "victory party" is purely to avoid some voters from thinking too much that there may be some behind-the-scenes deal, so they start celebrating before the votes are counted.

There are always many such federal people. They are only willing to believe what they think. What they want is not the truth, but the "pain."

Those who came to James' party today were all from Congressman Williams' faction. Among them were several congressmen, including people around Congressman Wade.

Jingang City has eleven administrative districts, and there will be eleven municipal councilors, and here, there are seven of them.

The remaining four were controlled by the Bay Area, including Charlie.

No, after these few days, he should be called "Congressman Charlie".

“I heard William mentioned some ideas for improvements in education in his election strategy.”

Since it is the winning party and there are seven winning members of parliament here, they will naturally discuss the future development of the city.

James was not very concerned about the campaign strategies of other congressmen. He was more concerned about, or curious about, William's side.

William nodded, and Emily was interacting with the other congressmen's wives.

Women seem to have an ability in this regard that men cannot understand. They can quickly find the right group in a completely unfamiliar environment and join it without any embarrassment.

Men may be a little worse in this regard, they need a little gradual process.

William looked at Lance, and Lance replied, "I plan to build at least two high schools, private high schools."

“Its admission requirements will be simpler.”

"Either they have very good academic performance, or they can bring some benefits to the school, or they have a house in the Empire District."

James was very sharp and grasped something, "Are you planning to invest in real estate?"

Lance shook his head, which made James a little confused, "Then why do you have such a third rule?"

"Must they have a house in the Empire District?"

“I thought you were going to invest in real estate!”

This is the only reasonable explanation he can think of at the moment, and this will obviously increase the housing prices in the Empire District by a lot.

High-quality educational resources are always in short supply. As long as the teaching staff of Lans' two high schools is strong enough, people will use all kinds of connections to solve various problems in order to enter his school.

Including buying a house in the Empire District.

"Real estate has not yet entered the stage of huge profits, and how many poor people do you think can afford to buy houses now?"

This sentence made James fall into deep thought. It is true that most poor people cannot afford to buy a house at this stage.

Houses seem to be very cheap. You can buy an apartment of several dozen square meters for more than a thousand yuan, and a detached house for about two thousand yuan.

But you have to consider that people's income is only more than 40 yuan, and this is per capita. The actual income is less than 40 yuan.

If only one person in a family works, they will need to go without food or drink for nearly three or four years to buy an apartment.

If they eat, drink, and have other expenses, and save ten dollars a month, it will take more than ten years to be able to afford this house.

During this period, they are not allowed to have shopping desires beyond their plan, get seriously ill, or have any extra expenses.

Otherwise it can only be postponed continuously.

Investing in real estate when society is poor is definitely not a smart decision.

"Then you do this..." James was a little confused about what Lance was thinking.

Lance smiled and said, "It's actually not as complicated as you think. The people in the Empire District are very supportive of our work, so I also plan to give them something in return."

This reason is very plausible and is also Lance's own idea.

When people are willing to take the initiative to buy houses in the Empire District, it will enhance the collective sense of honor and pride of the Empire immigrants.

They will become confident, which will allow them to go out later.

He always believed that administrative divisions such as the "Imperial District" and the "Sumuli District" were themselves a kind of cage.

It’s not about the people who live here, but the hearts of the people who live here!
What Lance has to do is to break this cage, and James, who comes from a family of large landowners and slave owners, will never understand this.

Maybe he had never thought that Lance would have these thoughts that had nothing to do with crime or making money.

The party ended at around nine o'clock. William's excitement gradually subsided. The alcohol and equipment made him not talk more with Lance, and he went straight home.

And Lance returned to his own side.

Before going to bed, Erwin told Lance that Ethan's "debut" would be at the end of the month.

During this period, Ethan has been practicing boxing hard, and he has a talent for it.

First, he must be able to withstand a blow, and second, his fist must be heavy and hard enough.

With these two talents, it means that he is suitable for this job.

The coach arranged a light heavyweight match for him so that he could get a feel for the ring!
This was Ethan's first official appearance on the field, and Alvin asked Lance and the others if they had time to go and show their support.

Lance did not reject this. This was the path he recommended Ethan to take, and he became more and more determined about this idea.

Not everyone is suited to being a gangster. Look at Morris, he was lucky and managed to survive, but not everyone can survive every time.

He promised Erwin that they would go together and have some fun together. They hadn't had any group activities together for a long time.

Two days later, Alberto brought Lance a message that Bandy had met with people from the five major families to talk about restoring stability.

Now the Kodak family is the only family whose strength has not been damaged, and their strength and influence are obviously stronger than those of others.

Bandy and Gaoli took a tough stance at the meeting, and the Keane family represented by Fergal now seemed to have sided with the Koda family and stood on their side.

Alberto knew some of Lance's ambitions. If Bandy could really calm down Jingang City this time, it would become more difficult to do something else.

In other words, Lance needs to respond early.

(End of this chapter)