Mayoral Debate (Open to candidates)

[Red Queen]

The television and computer screen in every single home inside Moon Valley came on just in time to see the people who have gathered inside City Hall. Those both at home and live at attendance were glued to their seats as very soon they would see all four Mayoral Candidates on stage together for the first time to debate the various issues that have come up during the course of the campaign.

“Welcome, everyone, and thank you for inviting us into your home for the Moon Valley Mayoral Election right here at City Hall,” said the Moderator for the debate as the camera cut to an elderly man sitting behind a desk, sat across from the stage where four podiums were located. “My name is Charles Eichmann and I will be your moderator for this debate. In the interest of time each of the four candidates here today will have two minutes to answer their question, we will go from left to right for each question, and one minute for follow-up questions and rebuttals. When the candidate hear this noise...”

A bleep noise sounded as the moderator trailed off.

“That means their time is up and we will move on. And we will be allowing audience participation. Introducing the candidates: Ms. Tori Jacobs from Jacobs Ranch, Founder and CEO of LexCorp Mr. Lex Luthor, Defense Attorney Shannon Osborn and Prosecutor West Arcane. Each of you, welcome and thank you for being here with us. We will now allow two minutes for opening statements: Ms. Jacobs?”

[Ayen]

“Introducing the candidates: Ms. Tori Jacobs from Jacobs Ranch.”

At the sound of her name being announced, Tori came up on stage from the left and waved to the audience out in front of her receiving some cheers from her supporters in the crowd while taking her place behind her podium. Watching as the other candidates took their place and looked back over to the moderator while keeping on the best smile she could to hide her nervousness.

“Each of you, welcome and thank you for being here with us. We will now allow two minutes for opening statements: Ms. Jacobs?”

“Thank you, Mr. Eichmann. It's a pleasure to be here and I want to thank you all for attending, and the other candidates for participating in this debate. And if I do say from up here you all look to be twice as large in numbers than you are when I'm sitting down there with you.”

A couple of laughs is heard from the audience as Tori continued,

“I'm running for Mayor of Moon Valley because I am done with sitting aside and watching this city crash and burn to the failures of the past. I, as well as a lot of people I know and who are watching this right now be it live or otherwise, are done with the bickering, hollering and not getting anything done as in the previous administration.”

More cheers, and this time applauds, erupted from the crowd in response.

“We're tired of the secrets, we're tired of being looked down upon and talked to like we're little children that need protecting. We're tired of the lies. If we have a demon dimension living underneath us then not only do we need to know, we deserve to know! That's why as Mayor of Moon Valley I am promising one-hundred percent transparency. You'll know what I'm doing, you'll know why I'm doing it just like you know where I stand whether you agree with it or not there will be no more secrets that I can assure you.”

Tori stopped to take a breather, and just in the nick of time as there was yet more applauds from the audience. Two minutes felt a hell of a lot longer when you had to give a speech.

“I know what some of you are thinking to yourselves, you're thinking, “We've heard it all before, Jacobs. What makes you different from any other politician we've seen before?” Good question: and here's the answer: I am not a politician. I'm a farmer. I know what it means to get my hands dirty but not in the matter that's accustomed. I've been taught the value of hard work since I was a little girl and I am seventeen years old, meaning four years or even eight years down the line it is going to be a very long time before I get gray hairs in my head.

“Now, I've no doubt one of the things we will be talking about here today is Immigration. I've no doubt we'll be talking about Foreign Policy and National Security which are all very, very important issues and have been the key issues of my Campaign from the beginning. And I look forward to debating those issues here tonight with you all. And finding the common ground, because once we can do that with each other then we should absolutely no difficulty with our neighbors. Thank you.”

[DC Comics]

"It's a pleasure to be here today at City Hall. I want to thank the staff for making all of this possible and the good people of Moon Valley for attending, or just watching this in the comfort and privacy of their own homes. I'd like to thank the other candidates for attending this debate to discuss these important issues that we are faced with today and I'd like to thank you, Mr. Eichmann, for moderating this debate. Eleven years ago I came to this city from my home in Isafaro because I saw opportunity, and to this day I still see opportunity. Many people now sees the glass as half empty, that we can't bounce back from the destruction that is seen all around us. But I disagree. I see the glass as half full, I see the destruction around us as an opportunity to rebuild Moon Valley to be better than it has ever been before. Just as I left my father's shadow back in Isafaro behind and built my own business from the ground up to be better than his, we can move away from the shadow of the demons, and the vampires and the supernatural elements that has plagued this city for far, far too long and make our city better. And this is how we do it.

"We need to expand our territory and there are several ways we can do this: not popular but if we bulldoze some, not all, but some of the forest that surrounds our city we can build more areas to attract tourists and get more money flowing into the city. Number two, we have many vast mountains that we can also build on to expand our territory and number three, if we purchase a piece of land to the mountains west off the road to Kari we cannot only expand our town but have a checkpoint for people coming in and out of the city helping us secure our borders that are long overdue for better protection. So the plan is rebuild what has been destroyed, expand through the forest and mountains around us and expand even further outside the city making us stronger than we were before. Because when we have more space, there is an opportunity for job growth, when we have more jobs and places of interests our stock goes up, when our stock goes up tourists come down. What has Moon Valley always have in spite of all the attacks on our city that other areas like Isafaro, Jherrazad, Aircano, Kari or Hallowton not have? Innocence. Now that the monsters are gone, now that we have this chance to grow we can become the place where others in Jherra, and possibly, throughout all of Genesis come to to just get away from it all. We can become the place where people leave the hardships of their lives behind and for one week, two weeks, or however long they choose to stay here, and just relax. But in order to do that we can't be afraid of natural growth. Remember, every big corporation you see, every large nation on Jherra, started out small. If they can do it then why can't we?

"And just to continue on from my point, when we have more spaces to build and to grow we can leave behind more for our children. All this time we have had only one school. Why not two? We have had one hospital, one police station, one fire department, one nightclub, why not more? What happens if one hospital gets full? We have people coming to Genesis everyday who aren't hostile so the likelihood of this is high but instead of just kicking every single one of them out, let's expand so the size doesn't become an issue, before it can become an issue. And the same goes for everything else. We do need more police, we do need more doctors, more firefighters, more teachers. And through expansion and tourism we can get the funds to hire more doctors, police, firefighters, so on and so forth. When I started LexCorp here eleven years ago I no longer had my father's money to benefit me anymore, that was a big thing people took issue with back at Isafaro. That I couldn't go on without my father's money but I proved them wrong. What I did is look at the demand in Moon Valley, hired the best people I could with the money I had saved over from my own work growing up and I went on to provide the supply to that demand. And through that demand I got the resources to increase my supply to meet the increase of the demand so when the demand got higher, so did my supply. Both continued and continued to increase until finally I became the billionaire you see before you here today and a country isn't all that different from a business. We have a lot of demands here on our plate and we need a mayor capable of meeting that demand with the supplies that are needed and continue to build that supply not through higher taxes like some politicians would try to sell to you, but by actually increasing and improving our community it can be done and I know how to do it. I've been doing it for the past eleven years.

"I believe it was Mr. Arcane who first brought up the notion of energy in this campaign by mentioning the coal mines in the mountains, and that's good. I like coal. My father and I made a lot of money off of coal but I think if Moon Valley is serious about acquiring Energy Independence that puts us leagues above the rest of Jherra, I think a much more stronger and cleaner energy resource is needed, wouldn't you agree? Fairly recently my scientists have discovered a mysterious artifact in the forest of Moon Valley that has been proven to have enough energy to power Moon Valley for years, and years to come. Ladies and gentlemen if I may..."

Lex took out his cellphone and started sending a picture on it to every phone in the place and then held his up for the cameras to get a shot of the screen.

"Introducing to you Moon Valley's future."



"The Tesseract. The answer to our energy problem. And I invite everyone here today to attend a live demonstration tomorrow morning at LexCorp to see first hand just what the Tesseract can do."

Lex turned off his phone and then put it back in the pocket inside his suit jacket.

"This is what I and LexCorp are all about. We don't just make empty promises or plans. We make plans, find the best ways to execute those plans and then create results. I think my record speaks for itself, I haven't just been making empty promises to you all for the past eleven years, I've been creating results. When the Netherrealm attacked I was right there helping where I could, giving the resistance the weapons it needed alongside Mr. Harker and other generous contributors in the war and as Mayor of Moon Valley I promise you will see results in my term as Mayor and an end to the failed policy of the past. Thank you."

[Red Queen]

The moderator moved on to Shannon and West for their opening statements and when they were finished, moved back to Tori for the first question.

“Ms. Jacobs, as mayor of Moon Valley what do you intend to do about the alarming increase in outer-worldly foreigners and the dangers many of them pose to the security of Moon Valley?”

[Ayen]

“Ms. Jacobs, as mayor of Moon Valley what do you intend to do about the alarming increase in outer-worldly foreigners and the dangers many of them pose to the security of Moon Valley?”

“This is not something that we are going to be able to face by ourselves. That is why we need to begin talks with our neighbors to come up with a plan that benefits all of us, so some compromises are going to be unavoidable. Now, I do not believe that we should automatically deny every foreigner who comes here looking for citizenship. The issue of our universes coming together is greater than any of us, and why we work together to solve these issues we need to help those from other worlds who haven't done harm to anyone.

“That is why my plan involves granting a work visa to people who do come to our city from other worlds and give them two years to integrate into our society by becoming a legal citizen and getting a job so they can give back to us while we give them a place to call their own. As a citizen I have seen a lot of people from different universes come through here, and not all of them were bad. In fact, a good sum of them I am proud to call a friend and I think they should be given a fair chance. We should proceed with caution, but the biggest mistake we can make is assume that everyone who comes here from a different universe intends to threaten us and our way of life.”

[DC Comics]

"Tori is absolutely right about this being an issue that we can't tackle on our own. That is why LexCorp is already working with Harker Industries and other nations to get to the bottom of this threat that is literally tearing our world apart. Right now as we speak we have more researchers going into the tower than at any other time during its stay here on Genesis. And we are more dedicated to solving its mysteries than ever before. There is no time to lose. That is why as mayor I will continue to work with our allies to uncover the secrets of the tower to resolve this crisis threatening our world as quickly as possible.

"As for the foreigner problem in general: it would be a great challenge indeed to throw out every man, woman and child who come from another world with how great in quantity they are. As mayor I plan to use all my resources at LexCorp to identify visitors from other worlds on the double and tell apart the threats from the innocent so we will not discriminate against the criminals and the people who are just coming here for a better way of life, and I plan to extend that to ensure that nobody here is an undercover spy from a dangerous world looking to take control of our city. We will not have another Carari Grey incident, I promise you."

[Red Queen]

The moderator went down the row and then back to Tori once again for the second question of the day. The way they had chosen to go it it looked as if the moderator should have given them one minute but few watching this were going to complain about a political candidate keeping things short for once.

“In light of the recent attack on Moon Valley by the Netherrealm, as mayor, how do you plan to ensure that the city is protected in case we are confronted with a similar threat int he future? Ms. Jacobs, you'll go first.”

[Ayen]

“In light of the recent attack on Moon Valley by the Netherrealm, as mayor, how do you plan to ensure that the city is protected in case we are confronted with a similar threat int he future? Ms. Jacobs, you'll go first.”

“Thank you.

“It's clear we need a stronger police force and a more modernized and efficient military to deal with threats such as these as they come. Since the beginning of my campaign for mayor I have been saying that I would open up free-trade to whoever would be willing to trade with us, to the nations of Kari and Hallowton right here in Jherra and all the way to countries over in Elim like Xanarnis, and that way we can get what we need to make these two things happen and generate trust between our neighboring nations because as time goes on we're going to need that trust if we're to survive the state of the universes.”

[DC Comics]

"Mr. Moderator, it all goes back to everything I said about expansion. With the money we'll get from tourism, expansion of job market and the new energy resources my company is already ready to provide we'll have more than enough money to train a new police force, and a new military precisely for the task of handling supernatural threats like another invasion. LexCorp is already working with the police and military to make sure they have the weapons and equipment they need and as more money starts to pour in I suspect within a year we will have the strongest police and military force the world has ever known."

[Red Queen]

The moderator moved to the other candidates, moving his last question card to the end to see the next question, his eyes now back on Tori Jacobs as he spoke, “As mayor, how do you plan to get Moon Valley back to work?”

[Ayen]

“As mayor, how do you plan to get Moon Valley back to work?”

The tough questions kept on pouring in, and Tori's smile remained intact through it all, in hopes that a calm demeanor would score her some points with voters. Lex Luthor already had her beat in the money and resource department, and Shannon and West on experience.

“That's going to start with the construction. As everyone else has already said, and I agree, we need to rebuild our city. We need to rebuild the hospitals, schools and police stations, as well as the businesses that have been out of work since the war with the Netherrealm. I am not opposed to expansion, but I would work to ensure most of our forest area remained intact since they have been around long before we have and is a part of what makes Moon Valley the great nation it is.

“There will also be job openings in diplomacy, in order to reach out to other nations and establish relationships for free-trade and researching the tower, we will need diplomats to represent the nation of Moon Valley to keep these talks moving forward. Our city is small enough to where construction, diplomacy, teaching, doctor, police and military jobs will be enough to keep everybody employed until the business districts is completely rebuilt allowing for an even greater market than before.”

[DC Comics]

"As I mentioned earlier in my opening statement, we need to expand our territory. What I am proposing as mayor will grant Moon Valley with twice as many jobs as the plan that Jacobs is proposing and give us with more tools to use. I don't want to see the forest go as much as anyone else who have lived here, but if we're going to make the future better for our children we have to be willing to make sacrifices, and I only proposed bulldozing some of the forest down. Diplomacy is all well and good, but you can't just send anyone looking for a job on a diplomatic mission. You need to find people who are qualified for the positions and that you trust. Keep the focus on industry and the job situation will settle itself soon enough."