66 Candidates?!

My research into real money trading continues, but we are now hot and heavy into the CSM election season.  In addition to trying to keep up with the CSM interviews that Cap Stable is putting out, others are jumping into the fray.  The latest is an effort by Bellak Hark of the New Eden Media Organization to encapsulate each candidate into a short ad.  As I write this, I noticed I was two videos behind again.  For those trying to cover the CSM election, I think we are in a perpetual state of trying to catch up.

I saw a message floating around on Slack that CCP Leeloo had confirmed that 66 candidates had properly submitted their paperwork and passed the required Internal Affairs background check ... so far.  The submission period ended on Sunday, so I imagine CCP will release the official candidate list as scheduled on 23 February.  I typed in the date, but I could have just as easily said next Monday.  The election begins next Wednesday and runs two weeks, ending Tuesday, 10 March.

Since the official candidate list doesn't come out until two days before the election, any pundit who waits until then to begin to evaluate candidates because they, "don't want to waste my time," needs to put that attitude aside and start doing their research.  Lots of people have already put out good content and I'm trying to collect it all at the Google stie, CSM Wire, I set up to store all the CSM information I've collected on the election.  In addition to Bellak's videos, I've collected the interviews, campaign posts, and social media contacts for each candidate.  But, if the information about the number of candidates is true, I'm missing at least 14 candidates that I will need to post Monday night.  And no, I am not taking off work to do the updates; I'm using my days off to go to Fanfest.

I'll have some thoughts on the entire election coverage process after the election ends.  But for now, everyone is scrambling to meet the hard deadline of the beginning of the election.  I believe the Cap Stable guys finished up recording the last interview, so "all" they need to do is edit and post them, plus do a huge final analysis show on Sunday.  Jakob over at Jakob's Eve Checklist will finish his analysis shortly thereafter.  Bellak is hoping to finish by then, but he told me each video takes two hours to produce.  And I know the redoubtable Rhavas is furiously gathering information for his annual look at the candidates over on Interstellar Privateer.

But 66 candidates?  I don't think anyone expected that many.  This year is stretching the resources of those covering the election, although we hopefully haven't seen all the pundits come out yet.  I can't wait to see how the whole thing turns out.