Cantona sat in his favourite speakeasy, holding court with some of his closest advisors, as he knew Godfathers across the midwest would be doing too.. It had been a long day, but a rewarding one; that much was clear from Cantona's appearance - not quite disheveled, but the loosened tie and rolled up shirtsleeves spoke of a busy evening. Nevertheless, much had been achieved in the meeting of Godfathers and it was with an easy grace and happiness that Cantona smoke, drank and chatted in the quiet bar. When the laughter died away from the latest anecdote, the mood subtly shifted as those around the big man noticed the change of expression from laughter to hard lined and serious.

Friends, it was an interesting evening, as always. The discussion flirted with tension and argument, but frankness and openness were always there - essential, I feel, in a meeting of such well esteemed friends of ours. The other Godfathers and I have rebuilt our own districts and now we look to the East Coast which has become our responsibility too

As we discussed the future of the districts that lay empty, an idea came to us both charming and elegant in its simplicity. The decisions at the top table are made democratically, with mutual regard and respect; could it be possible that we extend this model to this entire thing of ours?

In the corner was a large blackboard that was usually reserved for chalking up odds for the latest boxing bout; tonight Cantona had had it wiped clean and it now displayed information detailing one of the most ambitious schemes the 4 cities had seen.

The Godfather Council - Elect a Leader!

In what we believe is a first in this thing of ours we, The Godfathers, will be offering our blessing to anyone who can secure enough of the public vote to become a Crew leader in Staten Island. How will this work? Well, if you are eligible then you can throw your hat into the ring and the good people in this thing of ours will either vote for you, or crush your dreams.

What is going on?

• There are no restrictions on how much or how little experience your bloodline has in order to put your name forward.
• There are no restrictions on how old you are, what rank you are or how many bodyguards you employ in order to put your name forward.
• You must have your Leader's permission to put your name forward. If you do not and you secure enough of the popular vote without your leader's permission, your votes will simply not be counted.
• You do not need  to be a Made Man or above to put your name forward; but if you are not of the required rank by Sunday 22nd of December your votes will not be counted.

What should I do?

• If you want to add your name to the ballot paper, you must do so here. Registration will open at some point on Monday and close 24 hours afterwards so you have around a day to get your affairs in order.
• Your work is only just beginning! Street speeches, flattery, intimidation and bribery may all win you votes. How you choose to canvass is up to you.
• Trash talking your opponents for that crucial advantage is perfectly acceptable; but more than one Leader will be authed in Staten Island - so be careful who you make an enemy of!
• This is not a place for empty suits or the fainthearted. The mob is difficult to please and competition will be fierce; what can you do to prove you're worthy?!

How does the voting work?

• Once registration closes on Tuesday, voting will begin and will continue until Saturday 21st December 23:59
• To vote, you must be 2 days old or more.
• To vote, you must go here
• Voting will be anonymous.
• City Hall will be collating votes and the latest polling data will be live to ensure that no impropriety takes place.
• Crewleader votes will be worth 5% the total number of votes cast; whilst Godfather votes will be worth 10% the total of votes cast.
  • For instance; if 100 votes are cast a CL vote will be worth 5 and a GF 10.

What happens then?

• Once voting is closed, the top X placed candidates will be confirmed for auth in Staten Island. We already know exactly how many individuals we are going to auth, we are choosing not to announce this until polling is closed to keep the voting ultra exciting!
• Once the elected Leaders are up and running in Staten Island, they will be expected to reach a consensus on who, if anyone, will be the de facto leader of the district.
• At this point, the district will be considered a district like any other - unnecessary bloodshed or violence will be treated in the same way as it would anywhere; and Staten Island will be held to the same standards as the rest of 'our thing'.
• The exception to this is that, in the event of a Leader's actual performance varying greatly from the message they put across in their election campaign, steps may be taken by the Godfather Council to address this.

 

Once Cantona felt he had given those around the table sufficient time to digest the information, he coughed gently and spoke with a genuine enthusiasm.

Mes amis, this is certainly a lot of information to take it. Arguably, it is the most challenging, unique and ambitious proposals any Godfather council has ever made; certainly that is my opinion of it. I can only hope you are all as excited, enthused and optimistic about the opportunities the future may hold as much us Godfathers are.

I am sure there will be many questions; we look forward to them!

Please can you elaborate further on this point:

• At this point, the district will be considered a district like any other - unnecessary bloodshed or violence will be treated in the same way as it would anywhere; and Staten Island will be held to the same standards as the rest of 'our thing'.

Surely if it's a district like any other any bloodshed that happens by crews within said district involving the other leaders in that district isn't anyone elses business, so to speak? Or are you guys putting in rules that any newly authed leader can't take out another auth without your permission, a reason? What i'm trying to say is if the Godfather council are going to be getting involved in matters of bloodshed within the district, then who owns the district, because it certainly won't be the crew leaders who have been "voted in."

I rather like the sound of this, though I think an answer to the question posed by Desmand would be good for all, as this speaks volumes as to what kind of control these new leaders actually hold over the District itself.

Thank you Cantona for bringing this to the public on behalf of the Godfathers, I look forward to seeing how this plays out.

yeah i must admit as the city has a leader, i would expect them to be checking who is pulling their weight or not integrating well with others, so would discuss the clearing of this non functioning leader or vice versa, if a leader fails to live up to their responsibility the other crews will know quicker then outside NY.  I won't lie when i would be surprised on a lack of bloodshed, but will be interesting to see the end results and the maturity shown especially for someone fresh to leadership.

i love this idea, im excited to see who gets voted in as CLs

I asked cantons about this, but it's something that i'm pretty sure applies to all the people who will be running. Will the winners be allowed to bring people with, and if so, how many?

A man needs to take at the very least a RHM with him Telkin if he's indeed voted into the district wouldn't you agree Telkin. Considering the intrinsic link between the two (as I hear you've experienced yourself first hand), you can't expect a newly authed crew leader to be expected to recruit his hands from those fresh off the boat.

I'd still personally like to see some kind of limit of bodyguards entering the competition, but that's just me. If rumours are to be believed and there are amongst others trained IWP Dons entering the competition, this will naturally put off other likely lad Made Men which might fancy themselves a short cut to a piece of the pie. Perhaps that's supposed to the be the reason for omitting any rules, to reward those who might be older and of higher rank? But then that has you questioning whether this whole "competition" is just a facade to make things appear more fair. Naturally I look forward to responses from the Godfathers who can hopefully quell my naturally cynical mind, one way or another. 

"Now now Desmand.  No need to be so cynical, it's bad for your heart.  I'm not really a glass half full guy entirely myself though, I just like to know if you're going to finish drinking it or not."

Aaron pats Desmand on the shoulder and offers him a drink from his flask then steps up to the table and grabs a sheet of paper, jotting down his information on it.

"I for one, don't plan on letting my doubts stop me from trying at the very least.  Either on my own, or with a second, I'll take my shot.  My family has sat around and watched for ages, figure maybe this time I can make something of their name.  As soon as they unlock that box that is."

Finishes filling out the form and waits for the doors to open so he can take it inside.

After hearing the announcement and getting multiple inquires about it, Creep came to set the deal straight.

I have had MANYpeople come to me and ask if I am throwing my name into the hat. I come here to clarify. I do not know why I have been asked so many times, maybe its because of my ancestry but I am loyal to one man (never thought I would ever say I was loyal to a MAN), that man is NiNe. I will not be seeking auth elsewhere for my own personal gain.

With that said, please refrain from asking or you will be ignored.

Thanks for your time.

Creep

Ive gotta agree with you Creep, I have had many people approaching myself inquiring about my potential entry, I do not know if their reasons for asking are because they intend to vote for me or to gauge who could be their competitors.

For the record, Altho I think this could be a fine endeavor for the Godfather Council and be a good way to fill the empty districts, I myself will not be entering my name into the sorting hat. I am extremely happy working back in The West Side where my father previously worked.

I will cast my vote for whomever I feel best fitting to the district. I wish all who enter the best of luck.

I think it's quite delightful how the campaigning already seems to have started in earnest behind closed doors; the wheeler-dealering is certainly underway!

To answer Desmand's first question or, rather, to not answer it; I would say this. When I consolidated my position in the West Side, and Toberius before me, we were not hauled before the current Godfathers and given an exhaustive tick list of things to achieve to keep the hitmen at bay; nor a comprehensive list of 'do nots' to keep in mind lest we take a trip to the bottom of the Michigan. This is the same for any other Leader, whether it be of a crew or a district. The assumption is that we must be, or at least look like we are, cut from finer cloth. Those who are given the opportunity in Staten Island will be treated the same as any other leader, district leader or Godfather; if you fuck things up, things will probably not end well for you.

I think it would be remiss of me to try and account for every eventuality by stating "if X happens, the Godfather Council will respond thus...', 'if Y happens, expect to see this...' because we are not fortune tellers. I cannot possibly tell you what might happen in a week's time in response to a hypothetical event. What I can tell you is what a deal of effort has gone into this contest, and there will be some sad faces around if a popular vote is immediately undermined by an errant shot.

To address the discussion on Right Hand Men, which has been raised by a great many people both here in the streets and with my secretary I, again,  cannot possibly give you a catchall answer - it is not my place to do so. First of all, we must look to the potential Leader. Do they want a Right Hand Man at all, or do they perhaps feel the image of a lone soldato making his way into an empty district with just the shirt on his back will resonate with voters? Does a potential leader have the connections and the silver tongue to guarantee a dozen people will be going with him an do they feel this solid core of people will impress voters? It is, in the first instance, entirely up to each prospective leader whether they even want to take any people with him to begin with.

That is not to say that Billy Joe could speak to a Leader and demand 3 of his members 'because of the contest'. Ultimately, a CL's authority in his own HQ is absolute; any leader is perfectly within their rights to deny one of their members the opportunity to take part in this contest as a Leader, and naturally that right extends to denying one of their members the opportunity to leave as a Right Hand, a Left Hand or a pot-washer-in-chief.

So. Can a voted Leader take a Right Hand man with them? Sure, they can take whoever they damn well please, theoretically. Will they be allowed to? Well, that is very much up to the Leader of the member in question; and I would not presume to answer for them.

In a slightly related manner, Desmand raises the question of protection, and whether a limit should have been imposed. At last, I am able to answer categorically; instating a limit from the start would have, in my mind, undermined the nature of this contest. 'We are letting the people decide who is the most appropriate candidate; but we have already marked out some people as being ineligible' - a tad unfair, I feel. I understand the skepticism. This could certainly lead to a flurry of IWP candidates but ultimately it will be everyone who has a say in whether the guy with the bgs or the guy with no bgs is a more worthy leader. If you will allow me a moment of extreme frankness, I believe this Godfather Council has proven with recent events that are not ones to shy away from action; if we wanted to plug Staten Island with older, higher rankers with multitudes of BGS then it would have happened already, without apology or nuance - I can assure you of that.

Lastly, a brief revision/update on the voting process (which will open tomorrow at around 16:30 - the time when registration will close), each eligible mobster will now receive 3 votes, as this will give a truer reflection of people's judgements. You will not be able to vote for a candidate multiple times, however.

On second thought...

Make me FULL IWP and I will join.

This is a monstrous sham.

What the fuck is this? Crewleader Idol?

When did this become a democracy?

When did this place turn into a dank hole with slimy, politician-like creatures trying to curry favour by being friendly and sucking as much dick as possible?

*walks away shaking his head*

What an embarrassing and glaringly obvious lack of decision making skills from... the people making the decisions.

For 'ThatTeQGuy' for YOUR winner of Mafia Crew Leader Idol, 1933, call 1-866-IDOLS-01 before the deadline to make sure that you vote counts. If you call this number after the lines closed, your vote may not be counted but you will still be charged. Calls from a land line cost one dollar per minute, calls from a phone box may cost considerably more. Please ensure you have the bill payers permission!

To help you make up your minds, here's a recap of tonight's performances....

Ziva wakes up from her daydream, shakes her head and moves along.

I don't see why anybody would listen to the opinion of a 10 minute old civilian, who comes into the game with this attitude. You will most likely suicide or die soon. If maybe you had a better attitude maybe we would listen, and have you forgotten this is a game and having fun is the main point in this.