Stark for the Federation

From FEInfobase

Stark for the Federation was the Presidential campaign spearheaded by Darek III Federation Council representative Alexander Stark. His former running mate was the late Mars Council representative James Mendez. Standing on a platform of aggressive expansionism, the Stark for the Federation Campaign focused on reinviting hope to a lost Federation, returning pride to its citizens, and maintaining security and stability without limiting the Federation to Earth or the Sol System.

It was a campaign which often came under scrutiny for its hawkish attitude, considered potentially dangerous in this post-war Alpha Quadrant, and tended to alienate both members of the far right who wished to focus all of the Federation's power on Sol, and the far left who wanted expansion, but in a far less aggressive manner than Stark spearheaded. The campaign did, however, found popularity as a compromise, and as an alternative which remained true to the Federation's earliest ideals whilst not being blinded by the threat of the modern universe.

The media latched onto Stark's campaign with enthusiasm, delighting in analysis, critique, and support from all sides, much as with any other Presidential campaign. Two of the most vocal and popular journalists to tackle Stark as an issue were Maven Santiago and Alexia Janeiro.

History

In March 2405, shortly after the new Presidential elections were called in the aftermath of the death of President Spock, Alexander Stark announced, on the steps of the Council Hall, his intention to run for the Presidency. Rumour had it that this announcement came after the Councillor had holed himself up in his office for several days, only emerging to make the unexpected announcement after a meeting with then-Refugee Health Initiative Director Ryuss. Reports differ, from Stark having been in mourning over Jellico's ascension to the Presidency and Ryuss then prompting him to 'do something about it', to Stark having been planning out his entire campaign in a master plan and then summoning Ryuss to kick-start it.

James Mendez was announced the day after as his running mate, the details of how, where, and when the Martian Councillor was brought into the campaign still murky to the public. The staff were gathered shortly after, ranging from former Secretary of the Treasury Kaynes Eira to Pulitzer Prize-winning former journalist Elizabeth Malone. However, the very first public move the Stark campaign made would be a black mark in its history. Councillor Mendez, en route to the Mining Conference on Mimas to join the campaign, was killed in a shuttle crash caused by a mistake in Starfleet supervision of the Mars asteroid field.

The Stark campaign's ratings rocketed sky-high as a result, the public flocking to the candidate over sympathy and his strong image of leadership from the disaster. However, for months after it would be bogged down with an excessive focus on the late Councillor Mendez rather than the policies of the campaign itself, giving Alexander Stark a difficult time in moving his presidential bid and his message forwards.

Ultimately Stark managed to use the attention to win focus upon his policies until the final polls. Despite the succession crisis of 2405, when Sam Kirok was removed from power, it was Alexander Stark who was declared the winner of the election, and the true President.

Policies

The Stark campaign, despite being seen as one of the more hawkish and aggressive Presidential bids, actially embraced fairly liberal policies, particularly by the standards of what came before with the administrations of Presidents Spock and Jellico. Aside from the assertive expansionism, on matters of housing, education, and governance, a Stark administration would push towards devolution and liberalism, reverting to the premises of the Federation from two hundred and fifty years ago without ignoring the truth of the post-War galaxy.

Education was, unexpectedly, one of the Stark campaign's large platforms. During the War, there was a large push for individuals to focus on vocational study for purely practical purposes rather than academia. With Earth now a cramped location and the Federation stagnant, the Stark campaign favoured a policy to encourage citizens to be 'thinkers, not just fighters', and return to an appreciation of culture over sheer pragmatism. When challenged on any idealism of this policy, Councillor Stark claimed that there was nothing which would inspire citizens to recapture the glory of the old Federation more than the study of it.

The issues of Earth's overcrowding were ones which the campaign also focused on. Although Councillor Stark argued that the expansionism would provide, if not a chance to return to old homeworlds of relocated races, then at least the chance for them to establish new lands on different worlds where they could continue to develop their cultural identity without Earth's crowding, temporary measures would still need to be taken. Until the Federation could expand its borders and make it feasible for more colonies to be established, the Stark campaign pressed for relocated races to have the right to build up their own cultures in their allocated areas on Earth, with the right to local governance and law enforcement. In so far as it was possible, Stark pushed for a re-establishment of 'nation states' on Earth, permitting relocated races a degree of governmental and cultural autonomy, so the richness of the Federation's many races were not lost in a 'melting pot' on Earth.

The economy was another factor which relied upon the expansionist policy. An increase in resources from finding and mining old worlds would fill the coffers of the Federation, and hopefully open borders to other surviving interstellar powers for the possibility of trade. In particular, the Stark campaign focused more on free trade, granting corporations the right to oversee how they run their businesses - however, for much-needed governmental funding and subsidies to be acquired, co-operation with the government in terms of the rebuilding of the Federation would have needed to take precedent over more cut-throat enterprises.

The expansionism itself took a slight blow as a policy in the face of a new agenda pushed by the Stark campaign in the aftermath of the death of James Mendez. Resulting in an accident at the Mars Debris Field, it highlighted to Alexander Stark the lower standards in Starfleet. Through 'dead man's boots' and necessities of war, officers too young, inexperienced, and unqualified have been placed in positions of authority with which they cannot cope. Stark put pressure, and promised to further these efforts if elected, on Starfleet to try and return integrity and quality to its ranks. He challenged the youth of high ranking officers, particularly in the face of Starfleet's current 'too many chiefs' situation, where many seasoned flag officers remain in superfluous positions of power where they could be downgraded to fill necessary gaps in middle management, and the fact that Starfleet Academy has not reverted to its pre-War four-year study, opting in favour of a far shorter and, in Councillor Stark's opinion, less concise three-year course.

But the most major platform of the Stark for the Federation campaign was the aggressive expansionism. There were worlds, the campaign claimed, which still needed rediscovering. Instead of, as with the Starfleet Re-Exploration Initiative's mandate, making contact and then moving off to the next 'final frontier', the Federation should have been stretching out to nearby planets and expanding its borders to incorporate them. This would, according to Councillor Stark, deal with the problems of limited resources by expanding the pool to draw from, and offer more space to grant a reprieve to the overcrowded Earth. Stark primarily promoted this agenda by building on public dreams of the old glories of the Federation - but instead of memories of the Pre-War 24th Century, he harkened back to the earliest days of the 22nd Century Federation, where expansion was necessary, but the galaxy was still an unknown and hostile place and caution in all things had to be considered. Through igniting the public's imagination of both adventure and old glories, the Stark campaign was, even critics agreed, utilising to full effect perhaps the most potent weapon of all, one which the comforting Keaton and defensive Jellico could not successfully deploy: Hope.

Campaign Staff

Campaign Manager: Kaynes Eira

Senior Political Director: Ryuss

Communications Director: Elizabeth Malone

Press Secretary: Larry Thompson

Speechwriter: Sarine Whitak

Media Director: Chris Langley